


Stepping Forward

by LynxOnSmoothies



Category: Undertale, Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: All Monsters are Bara, Alphys (Undertale) - Freeform, Alternate Universe - Bittybones (Undertale), Alternate Universe - Swapfell (Undertale), Alternate Universe - Swapfell Gold (Undertale), Alternate Universe - Underfell (Undertale), Alternate Universe - Underswap (Undertale), Angst, BITTIES, Bara Papyrus (Undertale), Bara Sans (Undertale), Both Baras and Bitties, Brother fluff, But with Human Bitties, Characters Tagged As They Come, Depression, Described MC, Dog Squad (Undertale) - Freeform, Dogamy & Dogaressa (Undertale), Doggo (Undertale) - Freeform, Eating Disorders, Established Alphys/Undyne (Undertale), Fluff, Gen, Greater Dog (Undertale) - Freeform, Honestly everyone probably needs therapy and no ones getting it, How do clothes work?, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Its my world and I say fuck skintone/ethnicity discrimination, Lesser Dog (Undertale) - Freeform, MC has a potty mouth and will until she's feeling better, MC needs therapy and she's not getting it, Multi AU, Named MC, No Human Racism, OCs not tagged, PTSD, PTSD flashbacks, Panic Attacks, Plot, Plot is somewhere in here, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Rating May Change, SwapFell Doggo (Undertale), SwapFell Lesser Dog (Undertale), Swapfell Papyrus (Undertale), Swapfell Sans (Undertale), Trauma~, Underfell Papyrus (Undertale), Underfell Royal Guard 01 (Undertale), Underfell Royal Guard 02 (Undertale), Underfell Sans (Undertale), Underswap Alphys (Undertale), Underswap Papyrus (Undertale), Underswap Sans (Undertale), Underswap Undyne (Undertale), Undyne (Undertale) - Freeform, Unreliable Narrator(s), You don't know them but trust me they died, background shipping, because I'm insane, family themes, headcanons, lack of fashion sense, mixed POVs, monster racism, well intentioned stalking
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-27
Updated: 2021-01-28
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:21:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 35,692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27737566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LynxOnSmoothies/pseuds/LynxOnSmoothies
Summary: When monsters emerged from Mt. Ebott, the world changed. When they kept coming, the world adjusted. When they were granted rights, the world settled.Then the Core failed, and my world ended. How do you pick up the pieces of your life when there's none of it left to gather?(BittyVerse, MultiAU)(Starts out dark, but does lighten over time)
Relationships: Papyrus & Sans & Original Female Character(s), Papyrus & Sans (Undertale), Papyrus (Undertale) & Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 19
Kudos: 35





	1. Count Us

**Author's Note:**

> Should I be starting a story? No. Am I starting a story? Yes. 
> 
> HOWEVER. I simply could not sit on this story much longer. The writing urge was too great, and my enthusiasm for this story was burning. So hopefully you all enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.
> 
> As an aside, this story does deal with traumas, and as such could contain content that might upset some readers. Please read the tags and be aware!

I never considered how fast my whole life could collapse. Or, rather, how the actions of another could cause me to lose everything, by no fault of their own. It started slow, innocently, with a Tuesday in early March. On that Tuesday evening, a child by the name of Frisk released an entire species from imprisonment beneath a mountain.

I can remember sitting at the television with my brothers, popcorn bowls full as the news covered the emergence of another sentient race—we had been planning on watching some stupid horror movie. The news contained more monsters than that film ever did, though they seemed far friendlier than the bog monsters of horror movie stardom.

I can remember two months later as another group of monsters emerged from the mountain, led by a child named Chara. I can remember two months after that as another group emerged with another child. I can remember two months after that as another group emerged, with yet another child. I can remember as they were classified into clans, four in total. My brothers were awed over how similar, yet different the clans looked.

**_Tale_ **

**_Swap_ **

**_Fell_ **

**_Cross_ **

I can remember only a few months after that watching the Tale King shake hands with the President at the signing of the Human-Monster Treaties. Personally, I thought the name was a bit on the nose, but monsters tended to name things literally. The HMTs granted monsters the same rights as human citizens in the United States, while remaining citizens under their royalty.

I can remember my mother commenting on the integration of monsters into the workforce weeks later. A bunny monster had set up a bakery down the street from her office; it was apparently a bit of family tradition for Tale bunnies to own shops. He made wonderful pastries, all flaky and warm. I had a fondness for his CinnaBunnies.

I can remember my father mentioning a couple moving into our neighborhood almost a year after that. They were a lovely couple, bedecked in armor with an alarming tendency to refer to each other as “sis”. Former royal guards of the Swap clan, apparently. I found them a charming pair, even if Bratty did have a bad habit of surprise hugs.

However, my family remembers each of those moments without me.

It was around two years after monsters were freed when it happened. A wave of magic exploded out of the Underground, sweeping the globe and causing panic. Not because of the magic itself, but what it left behind. Tiny humans who claimed to be loved ones—sisters, brothers, husbands, wives. There was no record of them. The families they claimed to be theirs did not recognize them, there were no records of anyone by the names they claimed as their own. No photos had them, videos absent of their presence, events empty of them.

My family had no recollection of me, and I had nothing that could prove I was who I was.

It was terrifying, to wake up as a foot-and-some-change tall version of myself that my family was treating as a stranger. As an _intruder_. **_It b r o k e my heart_**. I wasn’t alone in that. Every other person I spoke to in the facility had similar stories.

_My mother didn’t remember me. She was supposed to be dropping me off at school; she screamed at me when she saw me in the passenger seat._

_My boyfriend said he was dating someone else. He said they had started dating on the same day that we had… she screamed at me and threw me out of the apartment._

_My little sister was taken in by my aunt, but I won custody, she can’t have her! She can’t go with her!_

Each of us was left reeling from the abandonment—and that’s what it was. We had been abandoned, **_forgotten_ **by those who claimed to love us. They let the scientists take us. They didn’t even try to keep us. Sitting in our containment cells, we could only press against the glass between us in hopes of some comfort. In hopes that the people on the other side would remember us in the morning.

Every time we woke, we would recite our neighbors’ names back to them, a reassurance that we remembered them. No one forgot, but the fear was there. My neighbors’ names were Katherine Gonzales and YinPing Xiao. I won’t forget those names. I don’t think I have the ability to.

They promised not to forget me either.

It was months in those cells, being prodded, tested. They didn’t treat us poorly, all in all. We were given food, clothing, beds, really any materials we asked for. We just weren’t allowed to leave. Not that we had anywhere to go.

We were told that our subspecies—we had been deemed our own subset somewhere between humans and monsters—were being called Bitties. We were told that the wave of magic was some large machine in the Underground, the Core, finally failing. We were told that the magic created us from nothing, supplying us with memories. There were theories that we were some sort of magical symbolic bridge between humanity and monsters. **_But we remembered being human._**

We didn’t know what to believe. Kat didn’t believe it, but Ping was uncertain. She was more swayed by the science being presented. Kat came around when a man a couple cells down from her fell. He stopped moving, and the scientists snapped him from his cell to examine. We were told that his soul had ran out of magic. Soon another fell, and then another. They couldn’t figure out why we were **_dying_**.

It was only a week or so after the first of us fell that Ping began complaining of her chest feeling odd. She said it felt like it was full of cotton, and yet so painfully empty. She started to look strange, like she was a faded polaroid. Her raven hair had turned a patchy grey, her cream skin yellowed and streaked, eyes that looked like the night sky now dull like tarnished buttons. She only lasted a couple of days after that. Her body didn’t make a sound when she hit the floor of her cell, as if she wasn’t even there. I screamed.

_ She left us behind. _

The scientists began giving us monster food instead of human food. The rate of our deaths slowed, but it didn’t stop. The hall of cells, each stacked on each other in rows, was growing increasingly empty. They called in soul experts when we had dropped by half. I spent most of my time talking to Kat.

Our row was almost empty.

We were told our souls needed magic to keep functioning, but that unlike monsters we lacked the ability to produce our own. They told us that the magic in monster food wasn’t enough, but that they were working out how to keep us alive. Apparently the royal scientists were hard at work figuring out solutions. I was beyond caring by that point; we had been told that the bitties from other countries were almost all dead by this point. It made sense. Bitties in our country had access to monster food, to the latent magic that came from monsters in our vicinity. Other countries didn’t have that. How could they? Monsters had yet to leave the United States.

Kat was complaining of chest pain.

Her chocolate hair had turned ashy, her skin brittle like burnt parchment, green eyes faded from emerald to cloudy mint. She lasted longer than Ping did, perhaps due to the monster food. It was horrible. We both agreed that it would have been kinder to go like Ping did. Days instead of weeks.

_ She left me behind. _

My row was empty. It was just me, and I was feeling so numb. There was a couple of others in my hall still. We could hear each other if we yelled. We didn’t though. What was the point? **_There wasn’t one._**

I asked one of the scientists how many of us this hall once held. He told me it was somewhere around eighty. I didn’t ask how many of us were left in this hall, but he told me anyway. Fifteen. He assured me that there were more in other halls, that other facilities had more as well. As if that would comfort me.

We were still **_dying_**.

The scientists took away seven more of us from this hall before they came back with a solution. Monster souls put off magic, in levels that would sustain us. At levels that would keep us healthy and alive, if they were in close proximity to us. They began making plans to move us to monster heavy cities. Three more fell before we were moved to the city of Mt. Ebott. Only five of us from that hall were still standing.

There were only fifty of us in that vehicle. Fifty out of countless who had been at that facility. More met us at the new facility. I asked how many of us were there. **_300_**. I asked if there were other facilities with bitties.

There weren’t.

Three hundred bitties. That was all that was left of our entire “subspecies”, which had been thousands globally. They told us that there were organizations doing fundraising to ensure we were protected as a **_critically endangered species_** , that celebrities were donating to research efforts on how to keep us alive. We were informed that the Tale and Swap celebrities, Mettaton and Napstaton, had been very vocal about their support of our conservation.

I didn’t know how to feel about that. Not about Mettaton and Napstaton specifically, but that people were donating to keep us alive. **_They hadn’t seemed so concerned when they let them take us._** I asked why, if monsters were so important to our survival, none worked at the facility. They said some did, but that they were more on the science side, less on our direct care. It didn’t make sense. **_If we needed them, why weren’t they there?_**

I didn’t bother asking my neighbors their names, spending my time sleeping. The caretakers were worried about me. I lied. I said I was fine. **_It just seemed like nothing mattered._** I made sure to eat when they asked me to, if just to get them to leave me alone. I was losing weight.

The bitty several cells down from my own fell a week later. It wasn’t due to a loss of magic though. He stabbed himself with his silverware. He had given up. **_I understood_**.

They didn’t give us knives after that.

**_ 299 _ **

The combination of magic in the air from the monster populace and the monster food stopped the falling. They kept up the tests, trying to find ways to stabilize us. Someone asked if we were going to be allowed to leave soon. The scientist didn’t answer. I wasn’t feeling hungry anymore.

We didn’t get that answer for another month. _The Bitty Laws_. We were an endangered subspecies, and we were to be treated as such. The city of Mt. Ebott had been designated a habitat of an endangered species, under Section 4(b)(2) of the Endangered Species Act. Under the Bitty Laws, we would have a community **_~~conservation zone~~ _**set up within the city, with homes and activities set to our size. It was to be built near the main monster communities, for the latent magic they give off, to be under the combined Royal Guards’ protection. They had already started construction when they told us.

They told us that the community had been named the Bitty Village. I didn’t really care. Some of the others in the facility seemed excited, murmuring the name under their breath like a prayer, an outlet for the intense desire to be **_not here_**. They brought us to a large park like space inside the facility, to begin acclimating us to being outside our cells. We called it the Park. We weren’t much more creative than monsters in naming.

They took us to the Park every day that month, as we waited for the Village to be finished. There was laughter. I asked a scientist how long since bitties had been found. It had been a year. It was the first time I had heard laughter in a year. I decided to sleep instead of explore.

They started me on the pills that month. They helped. It made me feel less numb, helped with the burning cold emptiness in my chest. I ate a bit more to get them off my back. I wasn’t losing weight anymore, but I wasn’t gaining any either. They were still worried; I was already small for a bitty.

Construction was finished by the end of that month. It took another couple of weeks before they said everything was ready for us to move in. Several of us were told that individuals were going to be assigned to stop in each morning, to ensure we took our medications. **_I wasn’t the only one who was at that edge_**.

They decided to move us into the Village in groups of fifty, one set each day of that week. I was to be moved in the last group. The first group arrived to widespread media coverage and cheering crowds of conservationists outside the Village—or so the scientists told the rest of us. The Park was full of excited laughter and discussion that afternoon.

The next group never made it. They told us a semi impacted the vehicle, crushing it like a tin can. An accident. There were disquieted whispers among the scientists and caretakers that day. I could tell that it wasn’t the whole story.

**_ 249 _ **

The third group was sent a day after they were supposed to leave. A precaution they said, a _just in case_. If it had been an accident, why take precautions? A small huddle had been discussing it quietly the next day while we were in the Park. Whispers that perhaps public support for bitties wasn’t what we had been told. But many weren’t sure. Why would anyone hate us? **_Hadn’t they already left us behind?_**

The fourth group never made it. They told us it was another accident, an issue with the brakes of the vehicle causing it to flip into oncoming traffic. We told them to tell us the truth. They didn’t give us an answer after that. The whispers in the Park were quieter, more certain that we weren’t being told the whole story.

**_ 199 _ **

The fifth group left a week late, with an escort of police vehicles, though we only found out about the escort later. The scientists told us. **_Friends of Humanity_**. A radicalized group against monsters, a human supremist group that viewed bitties as a symbolic perversion by monsters of humanity. They wanted monsters dead.

They wanted us dead.

**_ 149 _ **

I asked why there had been no issues at the facilities before now. I was told that the security at this facility was tight, to prevent them from reaching us. **_I noted that they said this facility. I asked. At least two facilities before we were moved had been bombed._**

Someone cried themselves to sleep that night. No one looked to see who it was. We had that much empathy left. **_Or did we just not care?_**

There’s only my group left to go. They’ve been waiting to send us over; it’s been two weeks from the last group. They were planning, tightening security in the hopes they would get us there. Apparently once we were at the Village, the monsters had set up an airtight guard, to the point where the facility was certain we would be fine. It was the getting us there that was the concern.

We leave tomorrow. They had brought us to the Park for one last trip, before the facility was closed. No need to keep the building running if no one was going to be kept here. No one is laughing this time, no whispers to others about the Village, or what was going on outside. Only a thick silence, as the remaining 49 of us loitered around the fake outdoor space.

**_ Alarms are going off. I can hear screaming. _ **

* * *

This was a shit day. A shit month, if he was being honest with himself. The officer dragged his hand down his face, watching as the last remaining FoH members were loaded into the transports. The fuckers had staged an attack at the Bitty Village, drawing most of the force to assist the Royal Guards in defending the tiny residents. The lowered guard at the facility had been swiftly dispatched, leaving the terrorist cell to sweep through the building.

He may not be particularly attached to the bitties—honestly the fact that they looked like mini-humans, and claimed to have memories of being normal people kinda freaked him out—but they didn’t deserve to go like that. 

“Give me a fucking brief and give it to me now.” The gravelly, snarling tone made the officer jump. For an 8ft tall Amazonian fish monster, she was surprisingly stealthy. The fish woman towered over him, her single yellow eye glowing down at him, her teeth bared in a grimace.

“Captain Undyne,” he greeted, swallowing down the reflexive urge to avert his eyes from the Tale captain. She was generally pretty amiable, but she unnerved him when she got serious. And right now, she was deadly serious. Her voice was tight and quiet, a stark difference from the boisterous tones she normally spoke in.

“Officers arrived on scene around thirty minutes after the alarm was tripped. We’ve since secured the scene. Just finished loading up the last of the FoH members we apprehended.” He resisted the urge to drag a hand over his face again. It was the worst-case scenario. “We are still taking stock of the facility, but it’s… it’s not looking good.”

He could practically hear the creak of Undyne’s jaw as she clenched it, her hands balled at her sides. Her magic sparked around her fists, wanting to form her signature spears. She held her discipline, however, much to the officer’s relief. He knew she wouldn’t lash out, but she really did scare him sometimes. Most of the Royal Guard did, actually.

“HAVE YOU LOCATED… ANY SURVIVORS?” The question was tremulous, even as the voice boomed. The tall skeleton—he should stop saying tall, he had yet to meet a truly short monster—fidgeted with his non-regulation scarf, which draped over his crisp uniform, partially obscuring the Tale crest on his breast pocket.

The officer shook his head, not looking at the devastated expression on the skeleton’s skull. “We’ve got officers still performing body counts.” He finally made eye contact with the skeleton, wincing slightly at the look on his skull. “I don’t have high hopes, Guard Papyrus.” Papyrus took a shuddering breath, clutching the edge of his scarf tightly. His soul sunk.

“Fuck. FUCK.” Undyne snarled, gnashing her teeth. “Call the Dog Squad.” The star tracking squad would scent if anyone was still living in the facility easily.

Papyrus stepped away, pulling out his phone with slightly shaking hands. Undyne growled, grinding her teeth. She wouldn’t have brought the sugarskull if not for his aptitude for green magic. This wasn’t a place for him, he was too soft.

“I’m headed inside. Keep me updated.” The officer made no effort to stop her as she stormed into the building, disappearing through the front doors, which had been blown open. Papyrus soon ended his call and returned.

“THE TALE DOG SQUAD WILL BE HERE SHORTLY. PLEASE DIRECT THEM TO US WHEN THEY ARRIVE.” The officer had to crane his head back to meet the towering skeleton’s eye sockets, but he did so to give him a nod. Papyrus moved to catch up with Undyne.

The inside of the facility was a massacre.

Blood from the facility staff splattered the walls, shell casings littering the floor like morbid confetti. They clinked against his boots as he traveled further into the building, echoing in the deafeningly quiet halls. Small cards began to pop up next to small bodies covered in sheets. Papyrus’s chest hurt, _ached_ , looking at the tiny forms mangled on the floor.

Bitties were delicate. Bitties were tiny. Bitties were never meant to be like **_this._**

He remembered how _excited_ he had been when news of bitties had reached the monster community. Tinier humans, made of magic? What was not to love? He had swiftly become fixated on any news of the tiny creatures. All monsters had, a near obsession that spanned the clans. The current theory as to the fixation was an instinctual response to bitties being composed of Core magic. As Core magic had been what had sustained the Undergrounds, it was believed that monsters had come to associate the concept with safety. Combined with the natural tendency of monsters to jealously guard what they desired, the royal scientists believed it was almost unavoidable that monsters would have fixated on the delicate creatures. Papyrus wasn’t so sure that the theory was correct, but he couldn’t deny that something about bitties made his soul _ache_ to be near them, to watch over them. He had wanted to meet one so badly _~~had wanted to hold one close.~~_

He had happily gushed with Blue over the few images of the small creatures available, Coffee lurking nearby as they cooed over how small the bitties looked. They were just so cute! His soul had bounced at the thought of holding one; they looked small enough that he could cradle them in his hands with ease. Blue had actually been bouncing on the couch the first time he saw an image of a bitty, starred eyelights blinding. Stretch had nearly had to hold the smaller skeleton down to get him to stop. Papyrus didn’t miss the fond smile on his alternate’s skull as he did so, despite the lazy complaints he drawled.

It had been devastating to hear that bitties were falling, unable to sustain themselves. Monsterkind had moved quickly, donating funds to bitty research, starting fundraisers, and petitioning for laws to protect the smaller beings. It was a desperate need that swept through the clans, exacerbated by the seeming _disinterest_ that most of humanity had in the deaths of the bitties. The royal scientists had worked tirelessly with human scientists to discern why bitties were falling. Research had been slowed by the reluctance of the human government to allow monsters close to the bitties, but eventually results came through. Bitties were made of magic, but were unable to create their own; their souls were cannibalizing their little bodies for magic.

Monster food swiftly became a popular item to donate to bitty facilities. It slowed the rate at which bitties deteriorated, buying enough time to find a permanent cure. Monsters put off latent magic, a function of their souls producing more than they strictly needed. That latent magic tended to simply dissipate, having nowhere to go but the surrounding environment. However, as bitties ran at a deficit of magic, the extra magic in the air could be absorbed by their souls. Simply by living in proximity to monsters, a bitty would absorb the magic they needed from the surrounding monsters, the excess being used to keep them healthy.

It was a thrilling concept. To the monsters that so loved the little bitties, to know that those bitties **_needed them_** —well, it was a rather intoxicating thought. To live in close proximity to the little human-shaped monsters became less of a fantasy to Papyrus and more of a tangible reality. The heady thoughts were tainted by the bitter news that followed. They had known that they were losing bitties, were all too aware in fact, but it wasn’t until the bitties had all been gathered at the monster capital of the world that they realized just how many had fallen.

The official tally was devastating, rocking the clans. Out of the thousands that had been created at the Core’s failing, only three hundred had survived to make it to Mt. Ebott. Most had fallen to magical starvation, but many had been lost to the attacks of the Friends of Humanity, the group having taken particular exception to the meeting of monster and human.

None of the house had taken the news well. Papyrus had cried that day, hiding his tears in his room with silent sobs. He didn’t want to worry his brother, and he pretended he couldn’t hear the sobs coming from the adjacent bedroom. Stretch had focused on comforting his brother, though he couldn’t quite mask the way he shook with repressed tears. Red just left, coming back hours later drunk. Edge didn’t bother to scold his brother, too busy staring into a cup of coffee that had long gone cold. Coffee himself seemed to barely react, but Papyrus could see him clutching his notepad a little tighter, eyelights dimmed as he rocked slightly on the couch. Wine had spent the night in his office, throwing himself into his work. 

Queen Scotch called for a Royal Council that week. It was announced that the Council had decided to build a place for bitties within monster territory in Mt. Ebott. It only took a few weeks for the Council to wrest custody of the bitties from the human government, humanity having barely put up a token effort in opposition. Bitties were deemed to be monster citizens, and the Council quickly passed laws to protect their new citizens.

The sense of horrible loss eased when the construction of the Bitty Village began inside the main monster community, taking the place of the large park that had been near the intersection of the clan districts. Excitement at seeing the bitty sized buildings pop up soon filled the community, every monster seeming to find an excuse to walk by the construction site with glittering eyes. The four Royal Guard captains began planning patrol schedules for when the bitties moved in, as a protective measure. The Guard already patrolled the monster community regularly, with the Guard of each clan tending to patrol their respective districts, but the changes would increase the frequency of the Guard passing the Village.

The week before the bitties were to move into the Village was laced with excitement. The air glittered with the magic spilling from the monsters that lived near the Village, many consciously emitting in order to saturate the Village with as much as they could spare. There had been a bit of scolding about that, actually. The bitties weren’t going to arrive before much of the magic had dissipated, so it was just being wasted.

When the first group of bitties arrived, it was all Papyrus could do not to coo at them as he took his patrol shift that day. _They were so small, so cute!_ They were even smaller than he had previously thought, the average height being an inch or two below 2ft tall, the tallest being only 2ft. The little bitties were all wide eyes and hesitant smiles as they took in the Village, and the surrounding monsters. He could feel his soul dancing happily.

That joy was crushed the next day, as a semi-truck barreled through a red light to crash into the transport carrying the second group. Papyrus hadn’t been there to see it, but Edge had been one of the Guard that responded to the crash. His description of the vehicle as having **_crumpled like a tin can_** told him all he needed to know. Fifty of the remaining bitties, one-sixth the remaining population, gone just like that. Wine came home late that night, confirming the suspicions many of them held. The crash had not been an accident, but an intentional attack by the Friends of Humanity. No one had been expecting them to make a move so soon, not with as much attention on the transport as there had been. It was a media firestorm.

They had delayed the transfer of the third group by a day to allow the Ebott Police to set up barricades along the transport route. There were no issues, and the group settled in swiftly. Monsters in the surrounding neighborhoods were told to be alert to suspicious human activity around the Village. They were more than willing to volunteer to keep an eye out for the bitties, the Cross clan in particular given their history.

The fourth transport didn’t make it to the Village. The vehicle had careened out of control while in transit, rolling for a distance before catching fire. They hadn’t been able to put the fire out, as it raged with an unnatural intensity. Chemical accelerants were found to have been laced around the vehicle, and it was determined that the breaks had been cut as well. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that this was another attack by the FoH. The transport vehicles were put into lockdown, monitored and inspected for further tampering. Two other vehicles were found with similarly disabled breaks.

The fifth group was delayed by a week and escorted by four police vehicles. It was inspected before departure by the human police, and drove slowly through the city. It never even made it halfway, as a bomb that had been placed in the engine went off. Wine was furious, screaming into his phone _~~Wine never raised his voice ever, it upset Coffee~~_. The only way the bomb could have been placed in the vehicle was if someone on the police force had sympathies for the FoH. Outside the Royal Guard, only the Ebott Police Force and the facility staff had access to the transports. In the span of two weeks, over half the remaining bitties had been lost.

The Royal Guard had demanded a delay of the final group in order to ensure that those bitties would make it to the Village. Wine had met with the other captains, going over scenario after scenario. The transport had been moved to a Guard controlled building, monitored constantly. Guards had been assigned to supplement the normal security at the facility by Scarlet, the Fell captain not trusting the human police assigned by the Ebott Police. The only snag was that the Cross Guard was required at a Royal function the day before the transport, though they were to return before the scheduled move, hopefully preventing the Guard from being down their heaviest hitters. It seemed to be a near airtight plan, so it was only fitting that the FoH decided to attack the Village while the Cross Guard was gone.

It was a coordinated, large scale attack, with more FoH members than had been assumed were in the Mt. Ebott area. The extra Guards assigned to the research facility had to be called to assist in defending the Village, most of the Ebott Police Force responding as well. So when it came over the radio that the Ebott Police were responding to alarms at the facility, Papyrus’s soul had dropped. He knew very well that there was almost nothing standing between any aggressors and the tiny bitties still at the facility.

Papyrus roused himself from his thoughts as he reached Undyne. It would do him no good to dwell on things he couldn’t change. The pair stepped into a fairly large room, one designed to resemble an outdoor park, though it was clearly simulated. There were a disturbing amount of tiny bodies here, little cards placed near almost all of them. Papyrus had to look away.

A soft ‘bork’ echoed from the hall, along with the clanking of armor. The Dog Squad had arrived. Undyne gave a sigh, uncharacteristically quiet. “Start sniffing, mutts. I don’t have any high hopes, but bark if you smell something thats living.” A couple of ‘borks’ of acknowledgment and some murmured assents, and the Dog Squad got to work. Lesser Dog and Doggo stayed together, Lesser Dog leading the blind dog monster around as he tilted his head this way and that, listening.

Undyne’s phone chimed with a rather cheery tone, and she stepped away to take the call. “King Asgore,” she greeted, as she stepped over by one of the trees near the edge of the room. “I’m at the facility now. I presume that Captain Alpha has updated the Council—ah, yes.” A long silence. “I’m afraid not, Your Majesty.” Papyrus lowered his eyelights to the false grass on the floor, tuning out the call. He could imagine what questions were coming.

“Ah, excuse me, Guard?” A voice made him tilt his skull back up slightly, meeting the gaze of a female officer. She held a clipboard, shifting a bit as she tried to meet his gaze. She clearly wasn’t comfortable around him, though if it was due to being a monster generally, or a skeleton specifically, he was unsure. Some humans had trouble with the skeletal aspect of his existence, which he could understand on some level. “I have the final report from the facility sweep on fatalities for Captain Undyne, but I see she is busy…?”

Papyrus straightened up, allowing his eyelights to drift from the officer as he loomed unintentionally over her. “CAPTAIN UNDYNE IS IN THE MIDDLE OF A RATHER IMPORTANT CALL. I WILL PASS THE INFORMATION ALONG.” Papyrus barely caught himself from tracing his gaze along the limp form of a bitty whose chest had been caved in. Cruelty, needless and mindless; that’s all he could glean from that sight. The officer cleared her throat, reading off the list.

“The final count is 25 facility staff accounted for, no survivors.” That was the entire staff of the facility that was still in residence. “As for bitties, we’ve accounted for 48, no survivors.” Papyrus stopped short at that, his eyelights returning to the officer before him.

“48? THERE WERE 49 STILL IN RESIDENCE AT THE FACILITY.” He could feel hope flutter in his chest. There was one missing. _One was MISSING._ There was still a chance.

Excited barking interrupted any response that would have come from the officer, as did Undyne’s triumphant “NGYAAA!” as she sprinted to Greater Dog, hanging up her call. Faintly, Papyrus hoped she hadn’t just hung up on King Asgore, though it wouldn’t have surprised him if she did. Greater Dog was barking at something in a bush, tail wagging at high speed. Shoving the armored dog aside, the fish captain stared at an open vent, at tiny bloody handprints leading into the metal shaft. A small sneaker lay by the opening, half-obscured by the underbrush. Hope welled in Undyne’s chest, and she bared her teeth in a grin.

She chortled, throwing her head back. “Sniff around, see where they went in the vents.” She spun to face Papyrus, pulling her phone back out. “Papyrus! Looks like we’re gonna need your healing magic after all! GAHAHAHAHAHA!”

The Dog Squad got to work sniffing along the walls, Greater Dog leading the group as he traced the vent system with his nose. Doggo had his head tilted, listening carefully for any sounds in the walls. A small, shuddering breath caught his attention, stopping just short of where Greater Dog had begun sniffing intently. Doggo placed his head to the wall, tilting his ears around to face the plaster. Another choked breath, ragged and wet. He took a sniff. Iron and salt. **_Blood and tears_**.

“Here!” Dogaressa strode up at Doggo’s call, gently nudging him out of the way before she lifted her axe and began carving into the wall. Dogamy quickly joined her, moving to mirror her. They soon peeled away the square section of the wall, the gaping hole framing the metal ventilation shaft. A few more cuts and the dog couple slid the section of the vent leading up to the next floor out of the hole. They moved aside with whines to let Papyrus see. Doggo whispered to Dogaressa, asking how bad it was, as it didn’t smell or sound like it was in good shape. Dogaressa filled him in as they gave Papyrus space to work.

The skeleton ripped his gloves off at the sight before him, shoving them into his back pocket. Curled in on itself was a small bitty, lying in a pool of blood and bile. She was tiny, at least half a foot smaller than any bitty he had seen prior. The front of her oversized hoodie was soaked through with blood and vomit, the red liquid still oozing from her shredded hands. Her right foot was missing a shoe, the foot facing the wrong direction. Every breathe the little bitty took was ragged and wet, barely audible.

He delicately slipped his phalangers under the curled bitty, lifting her from the metal shaft. His chest felt tight as he cradled her to his sternum, green magic pooling around her _tiny, terrifyingly light_ body. His soul felt as if it would burst through his chest as the little bitty shuddered in his hands. He ignored how the Dog Squad started to cluster in, whining at the smell and sight of the injured bitty.

“DON’T WORRY, LITTLE BITTY. WE’VE GOT YOU NOW.”

**_ 101 _ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oof, long huh? World set up makes this chapter a bit longer than it normally would be. 
> 
> Anyway, I got bit with the bitty bug, and had to make a story. I hope you all plan on sticking around for this. I'm really excited to be writing this one!


	2. Trauma

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When you make a 24-page character sheet, and then proceed to use almost none of it for the chapter because the mc is barely cognizant and nearly no one shows up. Yay.
> 
> Also, apparently, I’m a filthy liar. I said that this chapter wouldn’t be as long as the last chapter, but here we are!

It was warm.

_blip beep beep blip_

Really warm, actually. Wow that’s uncomfortable. I pried my eyes open, blinking at the blinding white light above me. It wasn’t the yellowish lights they used in the facility cells. Was I in the medical bay again? I had to go there when they were first measuring my weight loss; it had had these stupidly bright white lights then.

Raising my hand to cover my eyes, I let out a quiet whine. There was no need for them to have the lights up that bright. Literally no need ever, to have lights that bright. My bleery eyes fixed on my hand, my tired mind trying to catch up. It was wrapped in layers of bandages, and as I stared I became aware of a light throbbing in it. And I finally noticed the needle in my arm, most likely dripping a painkiller of some kind into me, given the memories that were starting to come back.

_ Bloody hands, desperately clawing at a metal grate. They are right behind me, I have to get it open. It’s my only chance. Ignoring how the metal grating sliced into my palms—they looked like chopped hamburger—I keep yanking at the covering. Tears are burning my eyes, as I _

_blip beep blip blip_

What?

I dropped my arm back down onto the surface I was lying on, trying to slow my breathing **_when had it sped up?_** A bed, I realized; I was lying on a giant medical cot, underneath at least two bitty sized blankets—no wonder it was so hot, under two thick blankets and being baked beneath these lights. I kicked my legs peevishly, managing to slip them slightly down my body, revealing that I was wearing a too big bitty medical gown. I was upsettingly weak right now, a combination of being underweight, injured, exhausted, and slightly drugged. Tears prickled my eyes, frustration and a bit of fear echoing in my chest. I could feel a wrapping around my right foot, a sharp pain echoing up in protest of my jarring it.

_ I can hear swearing behind me as the man realized what had happened. Fingers grasp my foot, slick with the insides of the other bitty’s head. I throw myself forward, choking at the agony that came with the pop of my foot cracking and my leg dislocating. I drag myself further into the vent by my shredded hands, leaving the man cursing and holding my shoe. Bloody handprints and smears mark my path further into the ventilation. It hurts, it hurts, it hu _

_blip bwap bwap blip_

What was that sound?

I pushed myself up, ignoring how my hands ached at the action. My vision was still blurry and my head swam at the changed position, but I could make out the general shape of the room. White walls, an IV drip, and some machines all in the same shade of sterile white. It was not the medical bay of the facility, but rather a smaller room. A hospital room, perhaps?

_bwip blip blip bwap_

I turned to face the sound. In the far corner of the room was a blob of color, orange and black standing out sharply against the medical white. It didn’t seem to be a machine, but what else could be making sounds like an old school platformer? Surely if it was a person, they would have noticed my noises and movements by now. **_Unless they didn’t care, like everyone else._**

_bwap bwap bwoo_

The blob shifted at the changed notes, letting out a soft grumble. I gave a hum of consideration—it really did sound like the sound effects of an old FamiCom game. As I did, a white splotch appeared on the blob, as white as the walls of the room. Couldn’t be a person then, unless they were normally pale as the dead. I blinked a couple more times, before giving up on clearing my eyes. The drugs they had me on must have been affecting my vision.

I also should probably be more concerned with who “they” exactly are in this scenario, but it seemed far too much effort at the moment. Besides, if they wanted me dead they wouldn’t have put me in a hospital(?) and fixed me up. **_Unless they wanted to start fresh in hurting me again._** I let myself collapse back, grunting at the pain radiating from the actions, bruises I had been unaware I had along my back complaining.

_ The boot catches me across the spine, flinging me further down the hall. I hit the floor, skidding across the tiles, leaving little streaks of blood as I go. Struggling to push myself up, I hear the man laughing as he turns to grab the other bitty and he starts to crush her head and **she screams as her skull starts to** _

***Poke***

I lifted my arm from my eyes. The blob was standing over me, and from this distance I could see it more clearly. It was certainly a person, just not one I had ever seen. A bone-white face peered down at me, gold dots of light watching me from dark sockets. Braces of the same color were linked over sharp canine teeth, exposed by the lack of skin on the skull before me. A skeleton monster. **_I hadn’t seen a monster since before the facility._**

Specifically, this was a skeleton monster in an orange and black hoodie, with the words “Lame Guy” on the front, who was nibbling on the cord of their hoodie nervously. In one of their biker gloved hands—the gloves perfectly matched the colors of their hoodie, I noticed—was a PSP, little bleeps coming from the handheld console. Their other hand was still outstretched from poking me, hesitantly hovering by me.

They were adorable.

The skeleton’s skull lit up a bright shade of burnished gold, the lights in their sockets flickering out. They dropped the console to grab the strings of their hoodie and yank the hood shut. I could still see them glowing through the tiny fabric hole as the console continued ‘blipping’. That was so cute, and it was such a pretty color.

They made a strangled noise, putting up one hand as if to ward me off. A small notepad was hanging from their phalanges, their hand shaking slightly as they continued to glow like a lightbulb. I narrowed my eyes, trying to read the words on the page.

_‘better?’_

It must have been written before they came over and started glowing. Not entirely sure what was up with that, but it was a nice change from the harsh lights in the room. I debated not answering them, but they hadn’t done anything, and really, what would that serve to do?

“Yessshhh.” My tongue felt heavy, the one word answer requiring more effort than I was comfortable with. My mouth felt like it was full of cotton, somehow sticky and dry all at once. The light on the skeleton’s face died down, and they tugged open their hood to look at me. The gold lights in their sockets stared at me for a very long, uncomfortable time. They looked down, flipping to a new page of their notepad.

_‘stay’_

With that note, the skeleton quickly shuffled out of the room, presumably to get another person. I pushed myself back up again, feeling the twinges more strongly. My head had been clearing slowly, and now that I was thinking more clearly, I knew I should go. Regardless of how nice that skeleton was, I was injured in a strange place with strange people around. Clumsily grabbing hold of the IV needle in my arm, I yanked it out and applied pressure to the opening on my arm. Almost immediately I began to hurt.

**_Holy fuck it hurt_ **

It must not have been drugs in that IV, but some magic solution. That was the only way that it could have worn off as soon as I took the drip out. And my body was letting me know that I was in worse shape than I thought, as the pain sobered my mind. My vision was blurry now from tears, not the haze of the magic/drugs I had been given. My whole body ached, bruises and cuts that I had forgotten making themselves known. **_And I was scared. Where was I? Everything hurt so bad._**

I crawled to the edge of the bed, looking down. It was a daunting drop to the floor for a bitty currently near mummified in bandages, especially seeing as the bed seemed to be of abnormal size. Maybe I could slide down the sheet to the floor? Turning around and grasping the sheet, I pulled it as best I could to get slack. After a bit of tugging, I deemed the edge close enough to the floor for me to reach. I began to wriggle my way down, bandages slipping on the cotton sheets. The pain of grasping the sheet caused my fingers to spasm in their bandages, resulting in the inevitable. I slipped, plummeting to the floor.

**_C r a c k_ **

Shooting pain shot up from my bandaged foot, spots filling my vision. I choked back a scream as I crumpled to the floor. Drawing shaking fingers over my bandaged foot, I see that my foot wasn’t sitting right. I had definitely just broken my ankle **_or rebroke it?_** Panic started to rise in my chest again, clogging my lungs.

Shuffling footsteps and the door handle jiggled. Choking on how badly it hurt, I dragged myself under the bed. Scrambling until I was pressed against the wall, I did my best to ignore the burning pain in my ankle, the stabbing pains from my hands, the bone deep ache that covered my body. Tears were burning my eyes, as I fought down the desire to collapse.

The door opened and a pair of sneakered feet entered the room. The shoes stopped, and a pile of pillows and blankets fell to the ground as they rushed up to the bed. They were looking for me, feet turning this way and that as they looked around the room. The shoes stilled, turning back to the bed. A flash of gold brightened the room for a second and something thumped onto the bed.

 _“zzzrttt---serve the kingdom---zzzrrttt…… **C r a c k** ”_ I flinched back, hand dropping down to rest on my wrapped foot. That was the sound my foot had made when I hit the floor. Familiar gloves dropped to the floor, and the figure crouched down to peer under the bed. It was the skeleton from before, gold eyelights darting around the space under the bed before settling on me. They stared for a long moment, before shifting.

I shrink back. They were going to grab me, they were going to _grab me, they were **going to grab me,**_

**_ he was reaching for me and_ **

— they crawled away from the bed. I blinked. Rustling sounds, before the pillows from earlier were tossed over to the bed, followed by a fuzzy red blanket. The skeleton reappeared, the PSP in their hands. Setting the console off to the side, the skeleton began moving the pillows around until they had made a comfy looking pile. They grabbed the blanket and shoved it under the bed toward me, before picking up the console again. Reclining back into the pile, they started their game up again.

_blip blip beep blip_

What were they doing? They were just going to…what? Lie there? Play their game? It turned out that yes, that was exactly what this skeleton planned on doing. The skeleton became absorbed in their game, completely ignoring me as they chewed on their hoodie string. Which left me pressed against the wall under the bed, with the softest looking blanket I had ever seen halfway between us.

I eyed the skeleton. They were still adorable, but I just…now that my mind was clear, I was so **_scared_**. Everything hurt, I didn’t know where I was, I had been **_attacked and I saw so many of the other bitties DIE IN THAT FACILITY._** I took a deep breath, still watching the skeleton. They hadn’t done anything to me, and I was so tired.

And I wanted that blanket.

I grabbed the blanket quickly, pulling it to my corner under the bed. It was so soft, softer than anything I had ever touched. It felt like what I had imagined clouds to feel like as a kid. Shooting a quick look to see if the skeleton was looking at me, and assured they were not, I shoved my face into the blanket. It was blissful, the gentle brush of the fabric contrasting the continued ache in my body. Something crinkled in the folds of the blanket.

Underneath part of the blanket was a page torn out of a notepad. On it was a cute doodle of a skeleton in a hoodie, with the word **papyrus** written beneath it. I looked up at the skeleton again. It was definitely a doodle of that skeleton. Did they draw this? Was Papyrus their name?

…The drawing was really good.

I curled into the blanket a bit as I inspected the drawing. It was clearly done quickly in pencil, but it was so cute. They had drawn themself smiling, sockets half-lidded. It really was cute. I yawned, blinking as I burrowed into the blanket a bit further, enjoying how it brushed against me.

_bwoop blip blip beep blip_

I just couldn’t hold my eyes open. I had just woke up, but I was just so tired. Looking over at the occupied skeleton, I made a decision. I would hear if they moved, so it couldn’t hurt to close my eyes, right?

Right.

As I drifted, my mind decided to bless me with information that had previously escaped me. Papyrus(?) had been blushing earlier. Wow, I was dense.

But why had they been blushing?

* * *

Papryus leaned back on his pile of pillows, focusing on his game. He loved games, he could control what happened in a game. It made him feel safe. His eyelights flickered to the small figure wrapped in the blanket, humming happily. She didn’t feel like she had control. She was scared and was hiding. That’s what he would do, so that’s what she was doing.

When he was scared, when he would hide, _when it was too loud and too much,_ Sans would sit with him until he felt better. He always did, not being alone. Sans was the coolest big brother and he always made Papyrus feel better. So, sitting with her would make her feel better too, right? It made him feel better, so it will make her feel better.

So he’ll sit here until his brother comes back with the doctor, and he’ll play his game. So she’s not alone. No one should ever be alone, he didn’t like being alone. That’s why he would _listen,_ so no one was alone. That’s how he knew where she was, he _listened_ with the Flower. He would have _watched_ , but none of his trees were here. He didn’t like not being able to _watch,_ he felt like he might miss something important.

He had his character wall jump up to collect the powerup. That sound he _listened_ to was bad, he knew that. She would have sustained injury, a broken bone. He had to wait to help her. She didn’t feel safe, and he wanted her to feel safe first. Then when Sans came, the doctor would be able to help the little bitty.

…

Sans should have been here by now. Papyrus felt the familiar prickle on his spine. Where was Sans? He said he’d be here, and Sans wouldn’t lie to him. Was something wrong? Should he be _listening_ for Sans? They were on the Surface now, but the Queen said that he should keep _listening_ and was Papyrus supposed to be _listening_ right now or—

A buzz from his pocket distracted him from the growing tightness of his ribs. He glanced at the bitty, noticing how she had sleepily curled into his favorite blanket. That blanket always made him feel better. He liked that it seemed to make her feel better. Safer. Sneaking his phone from his pocket, he looked at his messages.

**BigBrother: I WILL BE THERE SHORTLY, PAPYRUS. I AM STILL WAITING ON THE TALE ALPHYS TO GATHER HER SUPPLIES. I WILL NOT BE TOO MUCH LONGER.**

Papyrus hummed, relaxing a little bit.

**Me: s fine**

**Me: bitty under bed**

**Me: shes scared hurt herself**

**Me: lying on floor w her**

**Me: like you do w me**

**BigBrother: THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT YOU SHOULD BE DOING, PAPYRUS. GOOD JOB.** **ARE YOU ABLE TO TELL ME HOW SHE IS HURT?**

**Me: broke smthng**

**Me: _heard_ it**

**Me: got pillows**

**Me: under bed wn came bck**

**BigBrother: THANK YOU PAPYRUS. I WILL BE THERE SHORTLY.**

Papyrus gave another happy hum, putting his phone back in his pocket and starting his game back up again. See, Sans said that he was doing what he was supposed to. That meant he had understood what the bitty needed, right? That was good. He had a hard time understanding people sometimes. But maybe bitties were easier?

He remembered his earlier conversation with her, his zygomatic bones lighting up again. Then again, perhaps not. Papyrus didn’t think he was supposed to call others ‘adorable’ to their face, but perhaps he was wrong…? He would ask Sans when he got here.

Papyrus tilted his skull, _listening_ for steps in the hall through the Flowers he left. Soft shuffling was almost masked by the clack of Sans’s boots. Papyrus went back to his game. Sans was almost here.

The door soon opened, admitting Papyrus’s brother still in his Guard uniform, the buttons and stars glinting under the harsh white lights. Papyrus didn’t like how bright the room was. It made him itchy. Behind Sans was a much shorter Alphys than Papyrus was used to, one wearing a rumpled lab coat and clutching several medical instruments.

Sans strode over to him, patting Papyrus’s head fondly. Papyrus smiled, putting his game down. “Did She Fall Asleep?” Sans kept his voice down, both for him and for the possibly sleeping bitty. Sans was the best. Papyrus glanced over, taking note of the bitty’s closed eyes and slow breathing. She was asleep, curled into his blanket.

Papyrus nodded. The Alphys pushed her glasses up her snout, setting her tools down on the floor. “T-that’s to be expected. She’s suffering fr-from extensive body trauma, as well as continued magical deprivation and malnourishment. By removing her green magic drip, she most likely experienced a magic crash, and with the other factors, passed out.” As she spoke, her stutter went away. “In fact, this is easier for me to examine her. Coffee, could you grab her?” Papyrus nodded, remembering that Coffee was him. He didn’t mind the name. He liked coffee as much as he liked whipped cream.

Rolling over slightly, he snagged his phalanges on his blanket and dragged the bitty out. She was tiny on his blanket, the skin he could see under the bandages almost as pale as his own bones. He didn’t think that it was healthy for bitties to be that color. He gently lifted her. She was limp in his hand, reminding him of Snuggles, the cat doll that Sans had given him. She was about the same size and she was just as soft as Snuggles, he could feel that even through his gloves. He should draw her and Snuggles together.

He stretched up, placing the bitty down by the Flower he had summoned. Sans had given no more than a passing glance at the tool, but Alphys had paused. Oh right, he forgot. Monsters not from his Underground were uncomfortable with his Flowers. He vanished it as he stood up, trailing his phalanges through the bitty’s hair, the long brown threads like silk on his bones. He liked how she felt, like Snuggles. He wondered if she would be alright with him cuddling her like he did Snuggles.

Probably. After all, everyone liked cuddles, right? He loved cuddling Snuggles, and he loved cuddling with Sans even more. He put his hoodie string in his mouth, chewing lightly.

“Underweight and Malnourished, You Said?” Sans sounded displeased, making Papyrus step back and huddle in closer to his brother to comfort him. Sans patted his arm, not turning from where Alphys was pulling a file from the pile of items she had brought with her.

“Yes. Th-that along with her ab-abnormal height was w-what allowed me to fi-figure out which bitty this is.” Alphys passed the file over to Sans, who flipped it open. Papyrus pressed against his brother’s back, reading over his head. Sans snapped his reading glasses out of his inventory and onto his face. Alphys moved over to begin inspecting the bitty, taking a magic gauge with her.

_[Designation: Bitty H-229_

_Claimed Name: Elizabeth “Bet” Greene_

_Sex: Female_

_Approx. Age: 17-22 years_

_Claimed Age: 18 years_

_Height: 1ft 3in (Average Bitty: 1ft 10in – 2ft 0in)_

_Weight: 16lbs (Healthy/Target Weight: 22lbs)_

_Hair: Brown_

_Eye: Blue_

_Skin: Light Caucasian_

_Additional Notes: H-229 is experiencing a continued lack of appetite and interest in activities, and is often observed sleeping. These behaviors have resulted in H-229 losing a significant amount of weight and experiencing mild magical deprivation and malnourishment._

_Current diagnosis of symptoms is depression, and H-229 has been prescribed 2mg of SSRI, with mild results. H-229 no longer is losing weight, but still refuses to eat more than the bare minimum. No weight gain has occurred. Further intervention may be required._

_Caretakers Johnson (ID 89A0-22) and Syvel (ID 99A0-27) have expressed concerns over lack of common bitty behavior regarding settling. May indicate that H-229 does feel secure in her room, which could be further exacerbating the diagnosed depression. Further observation pending.]_

The file continued on into pages of daily observations of H-229, as well as recommendations by caretakers for actions to bolster the bitty’s physical and emotional state. Sans sighed, taking his reading glasses off and slipping them into his inventory.

“This Is Less Than Ideal. She Falls Far Outside The Normal Variance For Bitties By Quite A Margin, And Her Health Prior To The Attack Is… Concerning. It Is Rather Surprising That She Did Not Fall Before This.” Placing the file down on the side table, Sans clasped his hands behind his back at his normal parade rest. Papyrus slipped his hand forward, poking Sans’s clasped hands until he opened them a bit. He slipped his own between them, enjoying the comfort of his brother.

Alphys hummed. “I agree. Her refu-fusal to eat is resulting in a deficit that is d-draining her magic reserves, of that there is no doubt. Given her weight and the p-period of time indicated in her file, she should have fallen several months back.” Alphys scanned the bitty with another device, the soul gauge having been set aside. “I believe her abnormal size may have saved her life, actually.” That got Papyrus to look at the bitty on the bed. “Doctor Saw noticed that the larger b-bitties were the ones that we lost first, back when we were investigating the ‘why’. She discovered that smaller bitties have larger magical reserves—less body for them to fuel, or perhaps when they were created the force compacted more magic into them.” Alphys pushed her glasses up her snout again, eyes gleaming with science. “Either way, the increased reserves from being as small as she is likely kept her from falling to magical autocannibalism while at the Mt. Ebott facility.”

Sans’s phalanges twitched around Papyrus’s hand, the only outward indication of his displeasure. “It Is A Priority To Get Miss Greene To A Proper Weight Then, Doctor Alphys. We Cannot Afford To Lose Any More Bitties.” The words hung in the room, reminding all of them of the dire straits the bitties were in.

“I am aware. I w-will note on her chart the n-need for a nutrient heavy diet. If we could get her to k-keep her IVs in, we could do a nutrient drip as w-well.” Alphys sighed, slipping a bag of green magic infused fluid out and hanging it from the IV stand. She began prepping the drip, fingers moving in practiced motions. Despite being primarily a scientist, she had learned quite a bit about medical practice as well during her time, something that paid off when working with humans or bitties. They weren’t as easily patched up as monsters were. “She’s strained almost all h-her injuries again, and m-most certainly br-broke her ankle. She’ll need at least another t-two drips to heal the ankle alone.” Pressing lightly on the tiny arm in her hand, she marked where to place the IV. “I wish bitties weren’t so r-resistant to healing magics. If they reacted like a m-monster, or even a human would, one bag would be enough for her whole body.”

Papyrus slid his hand from Sans’s, shuffling over to stand over the bed. He kept a distance between himself and the Alphys. “Unfortunate Indeed, Doctor. Especially Seeing as Miss Greene Here Has Already Demonstrated A Willingness To Remove Them.”

Alphys slipped the needle into the bitty’s arm, taping it down to hold it in place. She was excessively careful doing so, holding the tiny arm with a gentle touch. It felt like a twitch of her fingers, and Alphys would snap her arm. “W-well, if I could inject a mi-mild sedative into the solution as w-well. Just enough to k-keep her relaxed.” She moved over to her supplies, recording the readings she had received earlier.

Papyrus reached out to the bitty, gently wrapping her up in his blanket. Blankets always made him feel better, so maybe his blanket would help her stay calm when she woke up. And Blue had told him that bitties often used soft items to make safe places. His blanket was soft, so she should consider it safe, right? Bitties were confusing.

Sans considered this. “While Not Optimal, I Do Believe That Would Be An Acceptable Course Of Action At This Time. Please Proceed, Though I Will Require A Thorough Documentation Of This In Your Report.” Papyrus slipped back to stand behind Sans as Alphys bustled about, readying the sedative. His eyelights never left the tiny form lying on the bed, the bed giant around her. They had pushed the bed to the corner for the bitty, to limit the sides of the bed she could have fallen off of.

Bitties were terribly delicate, Sans said. This one had hurt herself just dropping the 4ft to the floor. It made him fidget, bones itching. She was so small, she could be hurt so easily. He hadn’t hurt her, right? He had been gentle, but what if he hurt her? No, the Alphys would have said something if he had.

“O-of course, Captain Wine.” Papyrus thought it was funny that Sans was called Wine now. He did enjoy Wine quite a bit. Not as much as Papyrus enjoyed whipped cream, but his cool big brother did like it.

Hmm, was he forgetting something?

…

Oh right, he should ask Sans about what the bitty said. Tapping his brother’s shoulder to get his attention, he hunched down further. “…called me adorable.” Sans waited for Papyrus to continue, prompting him after a moment.

“Who?” There was amusement in Sans's voice that Papyrus did not appreciate.

Papyrus shuffled a bit. “…bitty.” Sans looked up at him as Papyrus blushed, an approving look in his eyelight.

“She Is Correct.” Papyrus made a strangled noise, poofing his cheekbones out indignantly. That wasn’t what he meant to ask, and Sans knew it!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not Shown:  
> -Coffee stealing pillows from other rooms, but getting his own blanket  
> -Wine having to coax Coffee to stop pouting  
> -Alphys being uncomfortable and wondering if she can scoot around them to the door
> 
> Congratulations! We finally have the MC’s name. Took me long enough, huh? Also, no one can convince me that Wine does not absolutely dote on Coffee. No one. 
> 
> Oh and if someone’s wondering about that bed height, it’s a monster bed. When your populace is generally between 6 to 9 ft, you make big, tall beds.
> 
> For your perusal, the height scale for the skeletons and bitties.
> 
> (UF!Papyrus) Edge: 10ft 4in  
> (UT!Papyrus) Papyrus: 10ft 1in  
> (US!Papyrus) Stretch: 9ft 10in (Slouches to 9ft 8in)  
> (FSG!Papyrus) Coffee: 9ft 5in (Slouches to 9ft 3in)  
> (FSG!Sans) Wine: 7ft 6in  
> (UF!Sans) Red: 7ft 3in  
> (UT!Sans) Sans: 6ft 4in  
> (US!Sans) Blue: 5ft 11in  
> Average Bitty: 1ft 10in to 2ft  
> Bet: 1ft 3in (and yes, she’s salty about it)


	3. To Go Back

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The more I write Bet, the more I realize she is a salty little shit. I relate.

_ I feel light, and everything is fuzzy. Where am I? Hmm…does it matter? Ugh, the lights are too bright. _

_ Is someone there? Who’s talking? A bunny, a fish, and a dinosaur…that would make a good joke. Don’t look at me like that, Fishie! It would. _

_ You want me to eat? Oh, it's soup. It tastes like kindness. How can food taste like an emotion? Am I high? Oh, I’m high, aren’t I? _

_ Why are you laughing? That’s mean. _

_~~ am I ~~ _

_~~ forgetting something ~~ _

_ This blanket is nice. I’ve never felt something this soft, I don’t think. Someone lent it to me? Oh, it was that skeleton, right? That’s nice of them. I should thank them. _

_ They know? That’s good. It’s a good blanket, I like it a lot. _

_ Does the blanket make me feel safer? What an odd question, bunny. How would I know? I’m barely here. _

_ …Huh? Why are you crying, bunny? _

_ Mmm, what? I need to eat again?  _

_ I just ate, didn’t I? Oh, it's been hours? Did I fall asleep? I must have fallen asleep, right. _

_ Why is it so warm? It's too warm, and the soup tastes like kindness again. That’s weird, I hope you know, bunny. _

_ Huh? Your name isn’t bunny? Well, I don’t know your name. _

_ Yeah, I’m not gonna remember that. I’m high still….stop laughing! _

_~~ I’m forgetting ~~ _

_~~ Something ~~ _

_ Eating again? I don’t want to. I’m not hungry.  _

_ I need to, to get better? Bold of you to assume I want to get better. _

_ …ugh, fine. If you stop looking at me like that, bunny. Geez, it was mostly a joke. _

_ …it tastes like kindness again. What? It was made with kindness? Uh, no. Kindness is an emotion bunny, not an ingredient.  _

_ It is for monsters? That’s weird. Do you also eat happiness and love?  _

_ You do? _

_ Huh. _

_~~ I don’t know you, do I bunny? ~~ _

_~~ Where am I? ~~ _

_~~ Why am I here? ~~ _

_ Why is the ceiling so far away, bunny? Am I small? Oh wow, I’m tiny, aren’t I? That’s messed up. I don’t like being tiny. _

_ Stop laughing bunny, I’m serious! _

_ Huh? Oh, it's because monsters are really tall? So I’m not tiny. _

_ …Hey! What do you mean I’m also tiny? That’s rude! _

_~~ Someone else was here ~~ _

_~~ weren’t they bunny? ~~ _

_~~ Who was it? ~~ _

_ Hey, you’re taking the line out of my arm? That’s cool, I didn’t like it really. I think it makes me fuzzy. Not like you though, bunny. Less fluff, more cotton and air. _

_ What? More soup? How much soup do you have? _

_ …you laugh too easily, bunny. _

_~~ Oh, I don’t think ~~ _

_~~ I hurt anymore ~~ _

_~~ Is that good? ~~ _

* * *

My eyes were burning, the lights above my head still abominably bright. I tossed my arm over my face, groaning. There was no reason for lights to ever be that bright. None what so ever.

I suddenly tensed, my mind racing. I was under the bed, wasn’t I? The lights couldn’t be in my eyes if I was under the bed. I threw myself up into a sitting position **_oh that didn’t hurt,_** blinking the spots from my eyes. My head was clear this time, no helium and cotton feelings clouding it. It allowed me to take in my position, on top of the bed in a very nice private hospital room. I put my head in my hands, pressing my palms harshly into my eyes to distract myself from the sudden tightening of my chest, of the clawing panic. I had fallen asleep, and they moved me. Stupid. God, I was so fucking stupid. But I didn’t have time to wallow in my misery.

Pulling my hands from my eyes, I stopped. Thin silvery stripes and slashes covered my unbandaged palms **_how long had I been asleep?_** Scars, crossing my skin in overlapping patterns like delicate lace. They made up the majority of the space on my palms, centering on the middle to form a tangled circle of shimmering skin, stretching up my fingers like spiderwebs. I could feel a distant amusement at the fact that if it weren’t for the shimmery nature of the scars, they would be near invisible on the sickly paleness of my skin. I clenched my hands, watching the lines stretch and shimmer at the movement. They were abstractly pretty, I mused, drawing my fingers across my palms to feel the raised ridges.

 _I hated them_.

I hated everything they stood for. They were proof, evidence. Proof that I had been hunted like a pest. Proof that had barely survived being beaten and tormented. They were evidence that—

_ I abandoned them, just as they abandoned me. I turn around, squirming further into the vent as the other bitty scr **eams.** _

I took a deep breath, dropping my hands into the soft warmth I was wrapped in. No. I wasn’t going to go down that road. I had made that choice already **_was it the right one?_** No, it wasn’t the right choice, but it was the one I had made and I couldn’t turn back time. No matter how badly I wanted I go back, to back to before all of this, back to _when my family cared, to loving arms and booming laughter…_ there was no back.

I ignored the burning of my eyes, dragging my hands across the red blanket. It was the blanket that ‘Papyrus’ had shoved at me, the incredibly soft one. They had left it with me…I didn’t know what to make of that. It was clear the blanket was well cared for, but also well used. It had the feel of being someone’s favorite, small signs of wear, and bits of fading around the edges from the washing. Something twisted in me, uncomfortable and hot, at the thought. It felt like a mixture of jealousy and wariness. Wariness from the gesture—I couldn’t tell what they wanted, what they stood to gain from the action. There was no doubt that this wasn’t an altruistic action, no one did anything for a bitty without it benefiting them. I had learned that early on _~~abandoned by everyone, except those who stood to gain from studying me.~~_

And the jealousy? I was embarrassed by it. I wasn’t jealous of the skeleton for possessing the blanket, no, that would have been acceptable. No, I was jealous of the blanket. I tried to not read too deeply into my feelings on that, nor why I felt that way. **_It certainly wasn’t because the blanket was cared for and loved, while I had been tossed aside. No, nothing like that at all._** Denial firmly in place, I shoved the blanket roughly away, denying myself the meager comfort of the blanket. It had strings attached, ones I couldn’t see. Now in my right mind, I was aware of them and the dread of what they could want overrode any appreciation I felt.

Standing up, I moved to the edge of the bed, peering down. I wanted down, but I remembered all too well how that went last time. A phantom twinge in my ankle at the thought. Yeah, that wasn’t the best idea. But what was I to do then? I couldn’t stay here, on this bed. It was too open, and I was too exposed. I had nowhere to run if someone came in. I began to inspect the room for other options, eyes alighting on a set of bitty-sized clothing folded toward the end of the bed.

Casting a wary glance around, I went over and picked them up. It was a white tunic shirt and white loose slacks. There were a pair of panties and a sports bra, also in white. No socks or shoes, however. Looking down at what I was wearing, I grimaced. I didn’t want to undress here **_I didn’t feel safe here_** but staying in this oversized hospital gown wasn’t an option I particularly relished either. Keeping an eye on the door, I stripped off the gown and tossed on the clothing. I was surprised at how well the undergarments fit, though the slacks and shirt were as expected too large by half. I wanted to sigh at that fact—all this time stuck as a Bitty, and still no clothing in my size. It felt like a shopping joke, but no, just my life.

The door clicking open caught my attention, and I flung myself back, tripping slightly over the bottoms of the large slacks. My back pressed against the wall as I waited, hunching my shoulders slightly. In stepped an electric blue bunny monster, holding a clipboard. They stopped just inside the door, a smile lighting up their excessively fluffy face as they saw me. That smile faltered a bit at the look I shot them back. “Oh, you’re up! I knew you would be sometime today, but I hadn’t expected you to be up this soon~! Oh, and you changed already too!” The voice was upsettingly deep for what appeared to be a plush bunny brought to life, rumbling like a truck engine.

I furrowed my brows. I…I recognized that voice. Memories floated just beyond the edges of my mind, tickling at the backs of my eyes. Flashes of conversations ran through my mind, hazy and warped. This bunny had been here when I was unconscious—or insensible, rather. Which I was starting to realize was a bit longer than I was at all comfortable with. “Who are you?”

Their—or his, I supposed ears drooped a little, and his eye twitched. “Oh okay, wow. You really don’t remember my name, huh? I thought you were just being difficult, what with being high and all.” His lips twitched into another smile, as he put his clipboard down on the side table and stepped up to the bed. I couldn’t press any further against the wall.

Bitch, I might be.

“Though, you were out for a while.” Looking at me pressed back against the wall, something flickered through his eyes and he reached up to play with an ear. “You were…not in the best shape. We had to get green magic in you, and Bitties are pretty resistant to absorbing it. Pretty resistant to human medications too, which was not _ideal_ exactly.” He trailed off, eyes distant. I didn’t want to hear about this. I didn’t care. I just wanted him to leave **_I just wanted to leave._**

“Err, I guess you probably don’t want the specifics though, huh? You seem like a bitty of action to me!” He smacked a hand against his chest, assuming a vaguely heroic stance. “After all, you pulled through that whole—” He cut himself off, his eyes wide as he quickly continued. “Oh, uh, your papers!” He quickly pulled some papers out of…somewhere? Oh, right, monsters had some nonsense called Inventories. Absolutely life hacks.

Flicking through them quickly, he chattered on. “I’ve got your apartment number for when you get to the Village, your diet recommendations, a list of Bitty social events, a map of the Village, and—” I could feel my eyes glazing as the bunny excitedly went over every single item in the folder he was flipping through. After a bit, he stopped and held the papers out to me expectantly.

The silence was thick, as the bunny monster stared at me. I didn’t take the small papers from him, never taking my eyes off of him. He wilted a bit, ears drooping. I felt a bit of regret at so clearly disappointing him, but it was easily shoved aside. Why should I care? I was just his job, his peoples’ fucking charity case. He didn’t care, not really **_none of them did or ever will._**

“Um, I’ll just put these here then.” He set the papers on the bed, stepping back after that. He rubbed the back of his head, his furry fingers running through his blue fluff and scruffing it up. “I’ll, uh, wow okay I’ll say it outright. You are so very different when you are not high.” My unimpressed gaze made him wince. Yes, admit I’m disappointing, that will get me to do what you want for sure. I kept silent, and he cringed. “Right! I’m going to go then. A Guard will be here shortly to take you over to the Village. You’re at least excited about that, right?” His entreating gaze finally made me toss him a bone.

“…maybe.” You would think I had just promised him the world from how he lit up, clapping his hands and bouncing a little on his paw pads. What the actual hell was with this guy?

“Fantastic! Oh, you’ll love it there! It’s just beautiful!” My lack of response, or rather, my weirded-out look, dampened his enthusiasm again. “Er, right. I was going. I’ll just…uh finish your discharge forms. Bye?” With that, he scurried from the room, closing the door tightly behind him.

Well, that was a valuable interaction. I’ll cherish it forever, _whatever your name is because you never fucking told me._ I stayed against the wall for a moment, waiting to be sure no one was coming in. When it became apparent that I had a moment, I darted forward and grabbed the folder. I was absolutely furious to see the folder was as tall as I was. Giant monsters had large papers and large folders. I wasn’t small. No, not at all.

I flipped through the papers. I have no idea how the bunny thought I would be able to take these with me—unfolded each sheet was easily 10.5x13in. I found the apartment number and ripped it from its page, slipping it into the pocket of the slacks. I moved to begin memorizing the map, as I clearly couldn’t take the oversized sheet with me. Everything else were things I was going to be happy to ignore. I sat down, eyes still on the map as I began to roll up the cuffs of the slacks. I didn’t bother with the tunic sleeves, deciding they could cover my hands.

This time, I wasn’t surprised by the door opening suddenly. No, I could hear the thunder of someone running at top speed toward the room and loud laughter. A clawed foot kicked the door open, and I yelped, scrambling back.

“GYAHAHAHAHAHA! Sup, Tiny?!” In arrived—and they most certainly arrived, there was no subtly in this—a sunshine yellow drake dressed in metal and leather battle armor. On their chest plate was the Swap clan symbol, and stars decorated their shoulder pauldrons. Bright brown eyes locked on me, and they stomped up to me.

“M’ name’s Alpha, Captain of the Swap Royal Guard and baddest bitch in this district!” She smacked both her hands against her chest plate like a linebacker posturing, releasing another ear bursting laugh. “You’re Elizabeth, right? Shit, took you forever to get better, you know that?”

Oh, ex-fucking-cuse me for being the victim of a literal terrorist attack. “My name is Bet.” I held my tongue on the rest. This one seemed unstable, let’s not poke the bear…drake. She grinned, all sharp teeth.

“Bet, cool cool.” She bent over my place on the bed, lowering her muzzle to be face-to-face with me. “Maaaaannnnnn, they really weren’t kidding. You’re tiny, Tiny!” Oh, I think I hate you. Before I could act on that sudden feeling, she stuck her hand out to me. “Whatever though, you’re tough and we got places to be!” Was…was she expecting me to climb on her hand? Uh no.

“No.” There was no way I was letting anyone _touch me_ , let alone hold me. It wasn’t happening, especially not with this loud drake with possible mental instability. Alpha’s grin widened at me as she straightened up, her hand still held out.

“Don’t got a choice, Tiny. We have a schedule to keep. We’ve set up a whole thing to get you to the Village.” I. Would. Not. Be doing that, thank you very much. I scooted back from her hand, sending her a dark look. My heartbeat picked up as she narrowed her eyes. “Get in my fucking hand, Tiny.”

I couldn’t stop the instinctive retort. “Call me Tiny one more time, I dare you.” A gleam entered Alpha’s eyes, her grin somehow stretching even further across her muzzle. I felt instant regret. What had I just decided about not poking the crazy drake? I had always been bad about holding my tongue, but the stakes were a bit higher right now.

“…Tiny.”

I barely held back my exasperated screech, but I did smack my hands against her own as she reached for me. She snorted and wrapped her claws around my ribs gently. I begin squirming, trying to wriggle out of her gentle, yet firm grip. I wanted her to put me down _~~she was so warm.~~_ This was highly upsetting, and my heart rate was beginning to accelerate _~~how long had it been since I had touched someone and not had it hurt?~~_

“Geez, that tickles you know!” I had never been so insulted and panicked at the same moment. “Com’on you’re being ridiculous. The more you fight, the longer this is going to take.” That got me to settle slightly. I didn’t want this to continue for longer than necessary _~~I never wanted it to end.~~_ She brought me closer to her chest, and kicked the door open again, booming laughs causing the monsters outside in the hallway to wince. She didn’t spare them a look, stomping down the hall at top speed. The wind made my eyes water, that’s how fast she was moving.

Kicking open another door, Alpha burst into a large garage filled with vehicles and large crates. I wasn’t entirely sure why there were crates in the garage, but monsters didn’t seem to be following much of my human sensibilities, and I was still rather distracted by the warm clawed hand wrapped around my ribs. There was a familiar looking transport van off to one side, surrounded by industrious looking monsters.

“There’s our ride, Tiny!” Alpha set me down on a large box as some other Guards did a check over of the van. Two particularly large monsters in spiked black armor were standing off to one side, quietly conversing with each other. A bunny and a…dragon, I assumed, based on the ears I could see. I amended that the other was most certainly a dragon based on the tail that lashed around the side of his body, smacking the other with a loud clash of scales and metal. The bunny just laughed it off. I could vaguely see the Fell clan symbol on their shoulder pauldrons, rimmed with spikes. “The rest of my squadron is just going over the van one last time, and then we’ll be off.” I seriously doubted the Fell pair I was staring at were normally part of her squadron, but I refrained from mentioning that. Mostly because I had now locked eyes with the glowing eyes of the dragon, the red lights intense.

I gulped at the stillness he affected, his eyes never flickering in their glow, which I was fairly certain meant he was not blinking as he watched me. I shuffled a bit on the box, uncomfortable, and played with the hem of the large shirt I was wearing. His eyes glowed brighter. Oh god why what had I done? I coughed slightly, turning back to Alpha. I tried my best to ignore the burning sensation of the dragon’s eyes on the side of my head.

“If you’re a captain of the Guard, why are you escorting me?” Alpha looked at me, eyes considering. I did my best to hold her gaze, still wildly uncomfortable with the eyes I could feel piercing into me. After a long moment, she flickered her eyes over to the van and nodded at someone.

“They finished up. Time to go, Tiny.” My irritation at her avoidance of my question was only matched by the agitation from being called tiny. I was not tiny, they were all just upsettingly tall. **_He’s still watching me and I can feel it oh god_**

She held her hand out for me. I sneered slightly at her outstretched palm, before allowing her to carry me. “Stop calling me that.” I did my best to ignore how warm her hands were again, the way I wanted to lean into them and soak up the sensation.

Alpha snorted, curling her fingers around me again. “It’s what you are. Accept it.” She carried me over to the van, nodding at a couple of Swap Guards who greeted her—and who watched me. All the eyes were making my skin crawl, as was the way they all did their best to affect a besotted look at me. They weren’t fooling anyone with those.

“Fuck you, no.” I flinched slightly at my own sassing. I had not meant to say that, the nerves from being stared at loosening my tongue. Alpha just grinned, however, and raised a hand, motioning someone to join her at the van. I turned my head, grateful for the distraction from my faux pas. That relief faded as I watched the two Fell Guard approaching, the red lights of the dragon still had not left my body. I shot Alpha a panicked look, which just made her smirk grow. Oh shit, this was definitely because I sassed her. How dare she do this!

Before they reached us, however, she climbed up into the van and up toward the cab. The inside of the van was lined with familiar glass cells, and my chest tightened as my skin began to itch. I had known this was a transport van, like the one I had journeyed to Mt. Ebott in all those months ago, but seeing the inside was bringing less than positive feels up. The twinges and clawing of the familiar pain of being **_~~abandoned~~_** in the cells, the memories of sitting in the van, of watching another bitty fall on our way to where we were supposed to be safe—it all rushed at me. I took a deep breath, doing my best to mask my reactions. It was stupid. I needed to hold it together. Opening one of the ones closer to the glass partition separating the cab from the back, Alpha held me out. I blinked, staring at the cell she was holding me out to.

They wanted me to get in the cell, in the vehicle. Did this not send warning bells to anyone other than me? I gave her a look, not wanting to get into the cell. Not that I would have wanted to even without the history regarding these cells. It was demeaning to be put in a glass box like an unruly pet **_~~and it made me remember too many things I wanted to forget~~_**. Alpha scratched the back of her head, flexing lightly. By lightly I mean she flexed with enough strength to deck a bodybuilder, idly.

“Er, don’t worry. We’re deep in monster territory, and the whole route there is lined with Guards, mostly Cross and Fell too. Nothing will happen. No one’s that fucking stupid!” Another example of how much these monsters supposedly cared. I wasn’t buying it. They just didn’t want to ruin their reputation with the loss of another bitty under their care—they didn’t care for _us ~~me~~. _And was the knowledge that the Fell and Cross clans were the main Guards supposed to mean something to me? I mean, the Fell I had seen were generally scary looking **_I could still feel his eyes on me, please stop,_** but the Cross clan looked relatively normal, if a bit like they stepped out of a late 1940s Macy’s catalogue. I was stalling, only delaying an inevitable conclusion. I slowly climbed into the cell, and watched as Alpha closed and locked the door.

She jumped out the back, and I could hear voices outside. The discussion was hurried, and shortly after the dragon monster climbed into the front of the van in the driver’s seat. He grunted **_holy hell his voice was deep_** , and shoved the seat as far back as it would go, but was still very clearly hunched up in the cab. After a brief moment of attempting to maneuver his tail comfortably—he tried wrapping it around the seat, but there was just not enough room and too much tail—he rolled down the window and stuck it out. That appeared to be an acceptable solution as he started up the engine. He cut his eyes to the rearview mirror, adjusting it so he could see me. I was so uncomfortable with all of what was happening.

A clunk at the back of the van had me looking back. The bunny monster was climbing into the back with me. He had to crouch down and huddle up to fit into the space, the van having clearly been designed for human occupants. He filled up the entire space beyond my cell, the only open space being the short distance to the glass partition to the front cab. It was starting to hit me how absurdly large monsters were. These monsters were walls of muscle, magic, and armor, with some stowed weapons no doubt.

Alpha closed up the back, smacking it once. The bunny reached out and knocked once in return, settling back a bit into a ready crouch. I had no doubts if that door opened and it wasn’t Alpha or the dragon in the front, he would launch himself with a terrifying force. Moments later Alpha crammed herself into the passenger seat of the van.

“Holy shit, this is cramped.” The dragon nodded, finally pulling his eyes from me, and Alpha hmm-ed, shoving her seat back. “Yeah, I’m gonna have to do the same as you.” She rolled down her window and stuck her tail out, tapping her claws against the door in a rhythmic set of clicks. She was still fairly curled, but nowhere near as bad as her larger fellow Guards. I suppressed a snort; the mental image of this van with two large dragon tails sticking out the windows amused me far more than it should have. As we started moving, I could only imagine them fluttering in the breeze like demented banners.

It occurred to me that I wouldn’t have been able to see them at all if I wasn’t the only bitty in these glass cells. That caused a bit of a wrench in my chest, a twist of something cynical and dark. There should have been others here **_but none of us belonged here in the first place._** I shook the thoughts from my head, sitting against the back of the small cell. Every stop at every light caused my heart to leap in my chest, watching the bunny tense each time.

After my third flinch, he turned his metal helmed head to look at me. I could see his red eyes glowing from the dark metal, menacing as they pinned me in place. Shit, he was probably irritated at how jumpy I was. He raised his hand, the metal gauntlets tipped with wicked clawed points—and fucking wiggled his fingers in a wave. He chuffed out a laugh, presumably at the dumbfounded look I’m sure I was sporting, before turning back to watch the van doors, all business again. I blinked, still attempting to comprehend the sight of the death metal armored bunny monster in front of me waggling his fingers in a wave I would expect to see on a cutesy middle school girl. What the actual shit are monsters, really.

The next time the van stopped, the dragon cut the engine. The bunny shifted as the two in the front leapt out the cab, after some maneuvering to get their tails back in from the windows. The bunny monster stood up as much as he could, his metal armor clanking menacingly. Quite frankly, short of that wave, everything this guy did was menacing. He placed himself by the van doors, waiting. I absently noted that he did indeed possess the little fluff ball that I associated with bunny tails. As the wait stretched, he began to tense up. Longer, and he reached over his shoulder and summon his sword. It was as large as he was, but somehow he got it in front of him, the glowing red blade menacing—I had to stop saying that. Everything about him was menacing, it really was redundant. The glowing red blade was held up as the handle jiggled, the light casting shadows on the bunny’s armor as he prepared

A bang on the door, and it opened. There was Alpha, a tight smirk on her muzzle. Behind her was the torso of the dragon from before. “Sorry nerds, had to clear a bit of a path to the gate.” The bunny lowered his sword, nodding. He dismissed the blade, as Alpha gestured for him to move. “Com’on, outta the way R-01-Fell.” Was…was that the bunny’s _name?_ That was awful! I thought that monster naming only applied to places and items, but perhaps I would need to reconsider that. Were they just generally incapable of naming things?

My contemplations on monster naming ability, or apparently the lack thereof, were interrupted as the bunny—I actively refused to call him R-01-Fell—jumped out of the van. Alpha grasped the sides of the van and hunched to get in, unlocking the cell door and holding a hand out for me. I eyed it, and sighed. It was incredibly demeaning to be carried around like a designer pet, let alone being carried in _one hand_ , but I didn’t have much of a choice. I couldn’t very well stay in this cell, not that I had the desire to in the first place. “Something wrong there, Tiny?” I shot the smirking drake a glare, before reluctantly climbing into her clawed hand. She curled her claws around my ribs gently, belaying the energy and strength she portrayed.

She brought me to her chest plate carefully, cradling me there as she leapt out of the van. The streaming light blinded me, and I had to spend a couple seconds blinking away spots. Once my eyes adjusted, I could see. And it was a sight.

Countless Guard were in the area, most of them sporting what I could identify as the Tale clan mark, with a couple Cross sprinkled in. They were lining barricades that had been erected to create a path to an iron-wrought gate. It looked like one of the fancy ones I used to see in movies, the ones that barred the driveway to the mansion of someone rich and important. Except I knew this gate led to a community built for three hundred tiny people. And the gate was only 4ft tall. The wall it was connected to was probably a foot shorter than that. Those walls weren’t enough to stop the upsettingly giant monsters from peering in, it wouldn’t even stop a shortish human. It would, however, stop a bitty from seeing out. **_Pretty walls and manicured bars on a gilded cage._**

A Tale Guardsmonster pulled open the gate and stepped back, as Alpha brought her hand down the ground. I slipped out of it, reluctant to enter the Village but eager to escape the touch _~~and how much I wanted to absorb the warmth of her hands.~~_ I stood there, looking in at the Village. It was…rather picturesque if I was to be honest. Large flowers speckled the area, in gold, blue, black, and orange. They should have clashed horribly, but the surrounding buildings and swathes of green lawns broke up the colors and turned them into artistically placed splashes of bright colors. I assumed that had been the intent, seeing how much care I identify having gone into building this place. The apartment style buildings were brilliantly painted, the fountains around the area sparkling, the roads and paths clearly maintained against the vibrant grass surrounding them.

The only smack was how empty it appeared. There were bitties about, smattered in pockets talking and laughing, or going about their day, but it was clear that this place could have held many more. This place, this pretty enclosure for us, had been built for many more. One of the bitties spotted me from where he was talking to his group and waved. I didn’t recognize him. I felt my hand twitch to wave back. I didn’t.

“ ** _101._** ”

Alpha’s voice was quiet, and I turned back to her. She wasn’t looking at me, her gaze locked on the Village. Something in the way she held herself was different, somehow both resigned and tensely defiant. She had her arms crossed, claws laced over her leather arm guards. “What?”

“Earlier, you asked me why a Captain of the Royal Guard was escorting a single bitty.” She finally looked down at me, something swirling in her eyes that I couldn’t place. “ ** _101_**. That’s all that’s left. Of you—of Bitties.” Something twinged in my chest. A hundred and one? That was it? I felt a laugh rise in my throat, but it lacked mirth. Thousands around the world, to three hundred in the facility, and now? After everything, after all their assurances that we would be alright here in Mt. Ebott, we barely numbered in the triple digits? I ran a thumb across the scars on my hands, feeling the slightly raised ridges.

There was something sour in the back of my mouth, and I fought to swallow it back. Alpha continued. “To lose even one more of you would be devastating. _That’s_ why I escorted you to the Village.” Something rose in my chest, cynical. Yeah, I bet it looked bad when your charity cases were dying on you. Was bad for the image monsters were shooting for, wasn’t it? The sour taste in my mouth burnt at the back of my tongue.

“Why would you care?” I bit the words that wanted to follow off. They didn’t need to be said, not now. Alpha shrugged, a clearly affected air of nonchalance to the action that I doubted she felt. I felt the heat rise further in my chest, burning at my control.

“I dunno. All monsters care though.” She huffed, a small smile pulling at her lips. “You’d be better off asking my wife. She’s hot shit smart about this crap.” They cared? _They cared?_ How fucking dare she say they cared. Something in me snapped, a sharp crack almost audible.

It escaped before I could stop it this time. “If you all cared so fucking much, then where were you?” It felt like everything went silent, the noise of the Guard and crowds fading away in the tense air between us. I hadn’t meant to say that. But I had, and it was there now. Alpha’s dark eyes were still on me, as I lightly shook. From fear, from rage, from shame…I couldn’t tell you. I committed to what I had said. “Where were you when we were fading? When Kat said it hurt to keep breathing, so she just **stopped.** When Ping told me she couldn’t see anymore, and she fell to the floor.” Despite the growing anger _~~pain~~_ in my chest, my voice didn’t raise one bit. Tears burned at my eyes, but not one fell. “If you cared so fucking much, why weren’t you _fucking there?_ We needed you to live, and you have the gall to say you **_care?_** ” The venom in my voice surprised me. I hadn’t realized I… no, that would be a lie. I knew I cared, but I pushed it down. It hadn’t seemed like it mattered before, I had resigned myself. I had resigned myself to glass walls, to white tile floors, to the possibility that those around me wouldn’t be there the next day. I was still resigned, just in a different way now. I was resigned to gilded walls, to pretty lies and pretend feelings. The utter fuckery of being told monsters actually cared, after all that had happened…it had broken something holding all of it down, letting it burst out.

Alpha didn’t respond. She just watched me, unmoving. It was only the creak of her leather bracers that betrayed the tightening of her arms, the pressure of her claws as she gripped her arms. Sound slowly seeped back into the air as we stood there. I could see myself reflected in her eyes, my white clothes and sunlacked skin abnormally pale against the rich chocolate brown she sported. I couldn’t seem to move as she inspected me, searching.

“…it’s not that simple.” I opened my mouth to retort, to tell her to make it simple, but Alpha turned away. “I’ll see you later, Tiny. You got your address earlier. Go home. Someone will be by tomorrow to run through some stuff.” Without waiting for me to respond, without another word, the drake walked away.

I stood inside the gates, watching her walk past the van and down the street. I watched as she vanished into the crowds of monsters milling about, until I couldn’t see her anymore. I kept standing there as the Guard closed the gates, blocking my view and closing me in. I stood there after that as well, listening to the laughter behind me and the voices from the other side of the wall. How could my chest hurt so much, when all I felt was numb?

I spun on my heel, walking quickly. Pulling the small scrap from my pocket, I compared the address to those displayed on the buildings I passed. I found a match in a building near the wall, a short distance from a large fountain and a small bitty-sized park area. Building #23, Apartment 302. Slipping through the front door into a small, well-lit lounge and lobby, I didn’t stop to inspect it. I sped up, slapping my hand against the call button for the elevator, my chest starting to constrict. I just had to get to the apartment, and then I could—

_ding_

The cheery tone had me through the partially opened door, smacking the button for the third floor. The door whirred shut, and I met my own eyes in the reflective metal. The elevator was too small, the metal walls a familiar sheen as my heart began to pound and throb. I clutched my chest, leaning against the shiny wall of the elevator, meeting my own wide eyes as my heart fought to pump. I had sweat dotting my forehead, pupils blown and lips trembling, as—

_ Something bubbles up over my lips, spattering onto the metal. Blood. I’m bleeding in my lungs. I laugh. It hurts to laugh. A clunk behind me. I keep pulling myself into the vents, turning the corner. Gunfire, my ears ring as metal collides with— _

_ding_

I threw myself from the elevator, choking on fluid that wasn’t there. I smash into the wall opposite, the pain of the collision a distant twinge. Bracing against the sturdy wall as I drag myself down the short hall to the little plate that read **_302,_** to the door just beyond it, I blinked away the dark spots crowding my eyes. I grasp at the handle, feeling it give as I tumble into the apartment. I don’t even look at the interior, just slam the door behind me as I slide to the floor, gasping and clutching at my chest. My heart was stuttering as I fought for air. The shirt, it was too tight, I couldn’t breathe. My lungs were burning as I stripped the top off and threw it away. I still couldn’t breathe.

I tried to crawl away from the door, coughing as my trembling arms barely held me up. My heart was drowning out the sound of my choked breathing, loud as thunder as it fought to keep going. I only made it a bit further into the apartment before I faltered. I fall to the floor, feeling the hard wood bruise my shoulder as I curled up in the pain and—

_ Laughter spills from me, wet and choked with my sobs. I’m going to die in this vent. Everything I did, none of it matters. I didn’t matter. I— _

Registered the pain of my nails in my arms. I choked again, feeling the cool texture of wooden floors, not the icy chill of the metal sidings. I forced my eyes open, taking in the well-lit interior of a living room, not the dim of hidden passages. I began to openly sob, curling in on myself further, not daring to move from where I lay on the floor. Fuck elevators.

Tears streaked my cheeks, nails biting my arms again. How was I supposed to do this? I couldn’t handle a goddamn elevator, how could I handle everything else? It was all just too fucking much—this apartment, this Village, the monsters who said they cared… How could I believe any of it was true **_that any of it would stay_**? Everything I had ever cared about, anyone I had ever loved, was all gone _~~dead abandoned me~~. _If I had learned anything as a bitty, it was that everything would and could leave me. How could I let myself trust this, when I knew it only takes a moment for it all to go away? **_~~Could I let anything in, when I knew it would only hurt more when it left?~~_**

I was pathetic, crying on the floor of the apartment, crying myself to exhaustion. How was I supposed to continue, when I couldn’t even handle starting? So there I remained, just inside the apartment, the shirt I had been wearing tossed somewhere in the room, covered in scratches from my own fingers gripping myself in an attempt to hold myself together, sobbing.

* * *

Skeletal fingers set down a slightly dented can of coffee, bones tugging into a frown around a hoodie string. Coffee let his eyelights flicker back to normal, pulling himself from _watching_ the bitty. He chewed his hoodie string harder, rolling the fabric between his teeth. He was not happy with how that went. He wanted her to feel better. He wanted her to feel safe. Instead, he watched as she fell to the floor of her apartment through her living room windows.

He knew those reactions first hand. He had them too, when the world grew so loud and just too much. When he couldn’t shut out the thoughts, when the sensations crashed into him like tidal waves. But she had been doing so well, up until she had entered her apartment. What had happened? What had pushed her over the edge? He didn’t like seeing her like this. She was so small, so delicate. It scared him a bit. It was all too easy for something to happen to her.

His phalanges had tightened on the can of coffee he had been drinking, causing the tin to crinkle as he _watched_ her curl in on herself. He had wanted to shortcut to her as she sobbed, her fingers dragging red welts into her thin skin. Without her shirt, Coffee was suddenly very aware of exactly how thin she was. She was almost as skeletal as himself. He had looked up healthy bitty weights, and he did not believe that she was at one. It was only his worry of accidentally hurting the clearly fragile bitty that kept him from her side long enough for her to pull herself from her spiral.

He was not too happy she cried herself to sleep, however. When he was like that, Sans—Wine, right, Coffee needed to call him Wine. Wine would keep him occupied, distracted. She had been alone with the aftermath of the tidal waves, the numbness and ache. He hated that thought. He just wanted her to feel better, to feel safe. Wine told him that it would take time, however. After all that she had been through, she needed time to adjust, he said. He said after she adjusted to all the new people around her and the changes in her surroundings, she would relax. Coffee just had to wait. He could wait. He was good at being patient.

He was not feeling all that patient, however. He was very uncomfortable with how thin the bitty looked. He glanced at the Saran-wrapped cat bread he had made, that he had been planning on snacking on later. Perhaps he could just…

_Fwoo-tmp_

Coffee looked in the glass balcony doors, crouched low next to the building. She was still curled up on her floor, her breathing ragged in her sleep from her tears. He didn’t like that, but he had to be patient. Placing the bread on her balcony, he gently slid the door open and pushed it inside. She hadn’t gotten a look at the room before, so she wouldn’t think her territory had been invaded. She would just assume the bread had been there before.

He watched her for a moment. His eye lights trailed the red scratches she had dug into her skin, bones itching. He hated those little lines, injuries she had brought upon herself. He fought the urge to scratch his own bones, the itching increasing. He had always been fond of small, cute things. She was very small, and very cute.

He wanted her to feel better, so very badly.

_Fwoo-tmp_

Coffee dropped back on the pillow pile, fingering the red blanket laced through the pile. He pressed his face into the fabric, breathing in the faint scent it held, of medical supplies and dark chocolate oranges. He could be patient. He just needed to wait.

So Coffee settled in to wait.

* * *

The door clicked shut quietly.

Alpha dropped her axe on the rack in the entryway, shoulders slumping in the privacy of her home. In here, she could drop the act. She didn’t need to be Alpha, Captain of the Swap Royal Guard, Immutable and Undefeatable, Unmoving. Here, she was just Alpha. She didn’t have to pretend here.

She didn’t need to pretend she was strong.

“…Alphy?” The soft voice called from the kitchen, and Alpha turned. Standing in the doorway, leaning against the frame, was Theta. Normally, the presence of her lovable nerd wife would be enough to soothe the stress of the day from Alpha. They would cuddle up with some anime, and Theta would talk about the work she had done that day while Alpha allowed her ramblings to wash away the stress of the day. Today, the sight of her beloved wife did little to assuage the weight in her chest.

“Hey, ‘dyne.” The old nickname and the uncharacteristically soft voice from Alpha further convinced Theta that something was bothering her. Stepping into the entryway, Theta wrapped her arms around her lover and drew her into the living room.

Gently pushing Alpha into the couch, Theta perched next to her. “What’s wrong?” Alpha didn’t respond, just sitting there. She looked at her clenched hands, the yellow drake observing her claws pressed into her scales. Theta reached over, gently prying her hands apart, slipping them between her own. The bright blue of her scales contrasted with the sunny yellow of her wife’s. Theta loved the sight, but she didn’t allow herself to take any pleasure in the sight right now.

Theta cast her mind about for what could be bothering the light in her life. “Did something happen today?” What was Alpha supposed to be doing today? Theta brought up the schedule she had memorized. She was escorting…oh. “Did something happen with the bitty? Her name is Elizabeth, right?” The tensing of the clawed hands between her own was answer enough. Theta waited, knowing it was best to let Alpha come around to telling her on her own.

Theta had been present once or twice while the bitty was sedated for healing. In her mind, she could see the tiny figure lying on the bed, engulfed in the sea of sheets and the red waves of the blanket she had been given. She ran through the possibilities. She doubted that something had happened to the bitty while she was under Alpha’s care—her wife was too thorough for something to have slipped through under her muzzle. Likewise, the bitty had been under close observation prior, and all reports had indicated she was healing well. So what had her love so riled?

Alpha finally turned her eyes to her wife. The sight of her fish-wife waiting patiently for her to respond, brows furrowed in concern behind her glasses, was enough to prompt her. “Bet. She…she asked where we were.” Theta blinked. Where they were? The lack of comprehension pushed Alpha to continue. “She asked where we were when they were dying.”

“Wh-what? Like, when the facility was attacked? You can’t blame your—” Rarely did Alpha interrupt her wife, but today she did.

“No.” Alpha was quiet for a moment, the silence stretching between them. She gently pulled her hands from Theta’s. “She asked…” Alpha turned away. “She asked where we were when they were told they needed us to live.” Alpha dropped her head into her hands, claws digging into her skull. “I-I couldn’t tell her. How could I?”

Theta’s eyes softened. “Alpha…” She had known it bothered her. It bothered Theta too. It was a guilt many felt they had to bear, that they were so close yet _so far away_ before the Royal Council had gained control of the Bitties. When the official count had been released, how many monsters had the same questions run through their heads?

_What if I had been there?_

_Would they still be here if I had been there?_

_I was so close, if I had just…_

It wasn’t a productive line of thought, but Theta found herself walking it at night. It didn’t surprise her that Alpha had been as well. For all that she put on for the world the appearance of a brash, hardheaded Guard, behind all that was one of the most sensitive monsters Theta had ever known. She herself was more unfeeling than her beloved drake, often playing the cool voice of reason to Alpha at night, when the captain would talk about her regrets, her fears.

“How could I bring myself to tell her? What do I even say?” Something crawled up Alpha’s throat, coarse and bitter. “Do I tell this little bitty, only just recovered from being _brutalized_ , that we weren’t there because of the same people that hurt her? That their lives weren’t worth enough for us to break some rules?” The choking force in her chest crushed her words into harsh barks of bitter laughter. “That I wasn’t there for her because some fucking _paperwork and imaginary lines_ kept me from being there as she and her friends starved? How can I tell her that?”

Theta felt her chest constrict, and she clutched Alpha to her chest. Her wife grasped at her, trying to press some of the scientist’s comforting warmth into her scales. Alpha felt so cold inside. She wasn’t one to break down, or avoid a difficult subject, and yet here she was. The guilt pressed on her, unbearably heavy.

“What could I tell her, Theta?” Theta rubbed her lover’s back, running her fingers across her uniform. It had been carefully creased, the leather layered over the torn fabric to deliberately show a careless display. She took a breath, contemplating the question. Theta fingered a mended gash in the seam between metal and leather, tracing the metal reeves and stitching. It was recent, having been gained in the attack just a couple days earlier. It had been the first time in a long while that Theta had felt fear regarding her love’s safety in the Guard.

“You tell her you’ll be there for them now.” Alpha heaved a shuddering breath, listening to Theta as she buried her head into her chest. “We can’t go back, we can’t change what was done.” Dragging her fingers under the drake’s chin, Theta lifted Alpha’s head to look her in the eyes.

“So we’ll do what we can now.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not Shown:  
> -Unnamed Bunny trying to find shoes but giving up.  
> -Coffee stopping in frequently to draw Bet while she's in the hospital. He's got a whole sketchbook of her sleeping face, the weirdo.  
> -RG01Fell comforting RG02Fell whose breaking down over how cute he thinks Bet is. He's such a sucker for cute things.  
> -Coffee realizing he just gave her a bun half her height, but not sure how to fix that.  
> -Alpha and Theta watching Wan Wan Mister Moody to destress from the day.
> 
> Who ordered the panic attacks and character development? Were you also the one who ordered the Monsters Don't Understand Boundaries Special? Sweet.
> 
> First, huge shout out to my laptop, who made it through finals before kicking the bucket suddenly and with no warning. The additional delay is courtesy of it, so please thank it in the comments. I'll be slowed until I get either my laptop repaired--it's not looking good on that front--or a new laptop entirely, so I thank you for your patience. 
> 
> Second, there was some confusion regarding names first chapter, so short explanation. You will be getting a more thorough introduction to each of the skeletons when they come up, DON'T WORRY. I promise I'm not just going to toss them at you and go. More importantly, Tale monsters are under their original names, while everyone else has new legal names, though the other clans have nicknames for the Tale monsters when referring to each other (i.e. Tale!Grillby is called "Flare" by the other clan Grillbys). Generally though, they will be referred to by their original name, and I will make a reminder at the beginning of a chapter in which a Tale monster is nicknamed of the nickname going to that monster. Later on I will also be dropping a list of skeleton nicknames, just for clarity.
> 
> That aside, thank you everyone for reading, and I hope you continue to enjoy the story!


	4. Go for a Walk

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We learn about bit more about Bet's new living situation, and Bet flubs some social interactions. Relatable.

Cold wooden floors did not make for good beds, I decided, groaning at the soreness that wrapped around my bones. Granted, the bruising from smashing on to said floor was a factor to the pain, as were the angry red scratches across my arms. I rolled onto my back, tossing an arm across my eyes to block the watery grey light seeping through the windows. It felt early.

Not entirely surprising that I had woken up at the literal crack of dawn. I had passed out fairly early yesterday. I quirked my lips bitterly. God, I was pathetic, wasn’t I? Couldn’t even make it 24 hours on my own without breaking down and passing out. I dragged my hands down my face, pulling my lower lids down to force me to own my eyes. I could feel the sleep crust on my eyes as I sat up, rubbing at the swollen skin around my eyes. I would have to see if I could find a washcloth to wipe my eyes, clean up the swelling from my crying.

I could see the white of the shirt I had worn yesterday puddled up to my left, over by a couch the color of wet earth. I crawled over and yanked it over my head, brushing my hands down the front and back to try and smooth the creases. I gave up after a couple of attempts—it would just have to work itself out. Sitting with my back against the couch, I looked around the apartment. It was a lot of creams and browns, all new construction. I could see a hallway leading off to what might be a bedroom. Hauling myself up, I went to look. It was a bedroom, one with a connected bathroom that contained a spa tub. Score. It was all fresh, all clean lines and new paint, no dings or scratches anywhere. All new furnishings decorated the space, but I couldn’t help but feel it was as sterile as the cell had been. There were no personal touches. It looked like a magazine ad for a nice apartment complex. I could feel the old itch to fill the space with plants, to cover the white and browns with vibrant greens. I didn’t really mind the brown, though, it was more the white that was bringing those old habits up. I had had enough of sterile white.

_"Hey Bet, you said you like plants, right?"_

_...._

_"Kat, it's the middle of the night."_

_"This is important!"_

_........_

_"uhhh, fine."_

_"I wanted to know --"_

I sighed. Even if I was to give into those old urges, it wouldn’t be easy to put plants in here. I was smaller than a good chunk of the houseplants I was used to now, and the ceilings were only maybe 5ft tall? They soared above my head, but for an average bitty, it would fit just right. An issue to mourn another time, I guess.

I went back down the hall and stepped into the kitchen I had passed. It was near sparkling from how clean it was, granite countertops and new appliances shining in the dim morning light. I touched the counter lightly, a smile twitching my lips. I loved cooking, it was my favorite way to destress. I was a horrible baker though—had gotten banned from trying after I set the kitchen on fire once. The smile faded away. I hadn’t cooked in a long time though. I would be pretty rusty now. And I had a feeling that a lot of the utensils I would need weren’t present—it hadn’t escaped my notice that the stove was a conduction top, not flame based. I could imagine that getting knives or such might be difficult. Regrettable, but not unexpected. They had kept items we could use to hurt ourselves from us in the facility, so it would make sense for them to continue doing so.

I glanced out the windows to the living room, dropping my hand from the counter. It was a nice living room, all decked in the same cream white and deep brown as the rest of the apartment. There was a large Bitty-sized tv mounted across the room from the couch I had leaned against, and a small coffee table placed between the two. However, my attention was fixed upon the absolutely massive bread roll dominating the room. I stepped out of the kitchen, walking up to the oddly shaped bun. As I got up to the nearly half my height bun, I could see some frosting on the other side. I walked to stand on that side of the bun.

_Snort_

Oh my god. It was a cat bun. The weird shape was ears, the frosting was a cute little kitten face with big eyes. A giggle escaped my lips. Was this supposed to be a housewarming gift? I glanced back at the kitchen. It would never fit. I braced myself against the back of the couch, more giggles escaping as I bit my lip. What was I supposed to do with this? Who had thought this was a good idea? It was so…so stupid! I bent over double, unable to stop the full body laughs that erupted from me, my grip on the couch the only thing keeping me from the floor.

It took forever for me to pull myself together and wipe the tears from my eyes. I had needed a laugh very badly. I was almost thankful to whoever had put the bun here. Straightening back up with deep breathes—and fighting another bout of giggles at the cheerful cat face I locked eyes with—I got myself under control. Now that I was no longer fixated on the bun, I could see it had been placed just within a set of sliding glass doors that led to a balcony. Scooting my way awkwardly around the plastic-wrapped bun, I stuck my head out the door. It was a private balcony, the only one on this side of the building on the floor. There was one above me though, and presumably some below me as well.

I stood there on the balcony for a bit, feeling the light breeze brush my face. The air smelled of morning dew, that rich loamy scent heady in the early morning. I wanted to go for a walk, take in the feel of the outdoors. A small smile grew on my face, just barely twitching my lips. Nothing was stopping me. I slid the door shut behind me, scooted around the bun again and began searching for the key to the front door. I found it on the coffee table, a note beneath it. I snatched the key up, ignoring the note entirely.

Standing by the door, I glanced back at the bun I could see peeking around the corner at me. Really, how had I missed that before? It was absurdly large in the bitty-sized space. Hand on the handle, I slipped out. I would… do something about the bun later. Something.

Locking the door behind me—not that I really needed to I guess, it was only Bitties in the Village and none of us would do shit to each other—I shoved the key into the pocket of the oversized slacks. Oh, there was a little nameplate above the number to the apartment with my name on it, how about that. I took in the hallway I had stumbled through the day before. There were only three doors on the floor other than the elevator, and one of those doors was the one behind me. The door across the hall from me was **301.** Guess there were only two apartments per floor in this building, seeing as I could assume the door at the far end of the hall was the stairs. That was nice. I wasn’t super interested in getting a bunch of neighbors. Not right now. Not that I had to worry about neighbors anyway, seeing as there wasn’t a nameplate above the other apartment number.

I passed up the elevator in favor of the stairs. I wasn’t in the mood for a repeat performance from yesterday. Pushing the door open to the lobby I had only glanced at the day before, I took a moment to take in the empty space. It was homey, modern with warm wood tones and stone accents. There was a small sitting area toward the front of the room, and a wall of mailboxes off to the side. I had to wonder about that. How much Bitty-sized mail was arriving? How did they get it in here? Were there some bitties employed as mail workers? Mail bitties? I rubbed the back of my head. I was getting distracted—I had who knows how long to explore the Village before others started getting up I could contemplate the logistics of tiny mail later when I wasn’t on a time limit.

Standing outside the apartment building, I took a breath. The air still smelled of the dew I could feel on the ground beneath my feet. Right, still didn’t have shoes—that was kind of weird now that I was thinking about it. Although… Looking around to confirm no one was around, I stepped onto the grass by a patch of glowing blue flowers that turned to follow my movements. It prickled the soles of my feet, the condensation soaking into my skin. It felt wonderful. How long since I had felt grass? Real grass, not the fake lawn of the Park?

I laughed quietly, wriggling my toes in the blades. The large blue flowers near me glowed brighter, drawing my attention. Stepping further onto the lawn, I reached out to feel the velvety petals. As my fingers brushed the petals, laughter rang out from the flower. I blinked, eyes level with the deep blue center. “Was that me?”

_Was that me?_

Alright, that was cool. Magic flowers were cool. Looking behind me at the other swathes of flowers, I wondered if they also would whisper my words back to me. Darting over to the orange flowers on the other side of the path, I tried them. “Will you do it too?”

_Will you do it too?_

My grin grew, and I full-on sprinted over to the black flowers. “How are you doing this?”

_How are you doing this?_

I knew it was magic, but there was something so interesting about how it repeated my words. It wasn’t my voice, the words spoken back in a soft whisper. Coming up to the gold flowers, I traced my fingers down the cool metallic petals it bore. It was the same shape as the other colors, but it didn’t look or feel organic. It was odd, but it was a magic flower. “Why are you different?”

It remained silent. I furrowed my brows and tried again. “Not going to say anything?” Still nothing. “Huh.” Well, that was all I was going to try with the flower. I wasn’t in the habit of harassing flowers extensively. Still, it was at least pretty in the dim morning light, glowing gently like its counterparts—though I admit I was confused on how the black flowers were glowing black. It seemed impossible, but I guess, magic?

Finally drawing my attention from the flower, I took in the rest of the area. There were fountains sprinkled throughout the streets I walked, tinkling happily in the quiet morning. Benches were smattered liberally about as well, plenty of places for bitties to gather and chat on the pervasive lawns. I put my head back as I walked, watching the pink of the sky hit the trees above me. They weren’t the size of normal trees but were more proportionate to the area. Oaks and Birch, it looked like. They were only a couple of bitty-stories tall, maybe 25ft tall, but bore the evidence of being fully grown, aged trees. Their branches spread across the smaller paths like arches, intertwining to allow the magical lights hung from their boughs to light the path.

It was peaceful, relaxing even. I hadn’t seen any shops or anything, only residential buildings. That bugged me a little; hadn’t anyone heard of mixed zoning? If they wanted this to be a community, they needed both stores and housing in walking distance. I also hadn’t seen much in the way of recreation. There was what looked like a library that was to the back of the Village that I passed, and near the center had been what looked like a drive-in movie set up, just without the cars.

_ "...you woke me up to ask that?" _

_ "Just answer the question, Bet!" _

Walking up to one of the fountains, I plopped down on the edge and stuck my feet into the cool water. I kept them there for a moment, watching the pinks and reds of the dawn reflect off the gently rippling water. I pulled my feet out, ignoring how the bottoms of the pants I wore were wet. No one was up yet, it was still just me. Not a big deal. I was more than happy to sit alone, enjoying the feel of the morning air, relishing the sound of the breeze rustling the leaves. It had been a while since I was genuinely outside. The Park had been nice, but there was no replacement for the way the actual world felt.

Not that I had ever been a huge outdoors person before…everything, but something about no longer having the ability to step outside, to enjoy a walk, or opened a window to let in a breeze made me cherish what I could feel all the more now. Funny, that. Didn’t know how nice it was until it was no longer mine to do.

I leaned back to rest on my hands, closing my eyes to listen. Sounds were starting up slowly, voices from beyond the walls, footsteps as monsters started their days. High pitched tinkles, deep rumbles, whispery-washy tones—the spread of their voices spanned every tone I could imagine. Soon, more familiar voice types began to arise, from within the Village walls, conversations starting up as the sun finished cresting the horizon. Greetings and laughter came from both sides of the wall. It didn’t seem real. It was beautiful here, the voices around me sounded happy. Something dark ran through my thoughts. Was it real? Was everyone really so happy, or were they resigned as I was? We were all in a walled, gated enclosure. No matter how pretty they dressed it up, that was ultimately what this place was. I opened my eyes, still looking up at the now blue sky.

Geez, I couldn’t even let myself enjoy one morning, could I?

“ _Hey!”_ My heart stuttered as I jolted back, almost sliding into the fountain. I snapped my head down, eyes shaking as I searched for who had yelled. That had startled me. Badly. Coming toward me as top speed as a blond bitty a couple inches taller than me, waving like a lunatic. He near ran into me, catching himself on the fountain with his hands, boxing me in. “You’re the Last, right? The Survivor?” He was loud and was practically vibrating on top of me, his eyes sparkling with curiosity.

 _The survivor? The last?_ Was that what the others were calling me now? Like some kind of fucking hero or movie character? Did they not understand what had happened? **_Did they not understand what I saw?_** A hand reached out and grabbed the bitty on top of me by the neck, yanking him back sharply. “Jeb, what the actual fuck.” The new bitty dragged the dubbed Jeb away as he complained—he was just asking!—while I tried to bring myself down. They didn’t know, they weren’t there. It hadn’t seemed real to me when they were telling me about the vehicle accidents—it wouldn’t feel real to them when they were told about the attack on the facility.

“Um, sorry about Jeb. He doesn’t really think things through.” The warm tenor voice drew my attention to the last bitty to have approached me. I recognized him—he had been the tallest at the Mt. Ebott facility, a full 2ft tall. Mark, or something like that. I hadn’t really made much of an effort to learn anyone’s names while there. Didn’t see much of a point—getting to know people just meant it hurt more when they left.

“My name’s Matt, the idiot getting yelled at is Jeb, and the one yelling is Arjun.” He stuck his hand out to me. I just looked at it. After a good moment of waiting, he pulled his hand back with an awkward laugh. “Haha, right, guess not. Uh, your name is Elizabeth, right?” I scooted away from him a bit, hoping he would get the hint to leave me alone. I wasn’t interested in getting to know anyone. When it became apparent that he would not be taking the hint, I gave him a curt nod.

“I thought so! I remember you a bit from the facility, what with you being the smallest bitty there, but I never got the chance to talk to you.” I would have been more irritated at being remembered as the smallest bitty if it wasn’t a better reason to be known than because I had survived the attack. Or if I hadn’t remembered him solely because he was the tallest bitty. Fair was fair on that one. “You know, you made a pretty big stir yesterday. We all thought that, well, that—” 

I cut him off, not liking where the conversation was going. Did none of these bitties remember _tact?_ “Please leave me alone.” Matt stopped, looking confused. To be fair, he probably wasn’t expecting me to be anything other than receptive to his overtures—bitties as a rule tended to be nicer to each other than humans or monsters. Bitties stuck together, you know? However, I wasn’t in the mood, nor was I **_ready_**.

“Uh, what?”

I repeated myself, voice still fairly cold. “Leave me alone.”

"Um, o-okay?” He didn’t sound like he knew exactly what to do when confronted with my not so polite request. Or demand, really. I wasn’t planning on taking ‘no’ as an answer. I stood up, shoving my hands into the pants pockets. Stepping around him, I began to quickly walk off. “Oh, uh, see you later?” He called after me, confused. I could hear the group talking behind me as I sped up.

“Wow, what’d you do to scare her off?”

“S-shut up! I didn’t scare her off!”

I didn’t care to listen anymore, speeding up even more as I walked through the Village. It was a mistake to stay out this late, I thought, as more bitties called out to me to get my attention. I paid them no mind, dropping my head and hunching my shoulders. I was near sprinting by the time I reached the apartment building again. Stopping in the lobby, my bare feet loud on the tiled fake wood floor, I took a breath.

Okay, wow, that had been more than I was ready for. I hadn’t expected another bitty to open with…that. Who did that anyway? I rubbed a hand across my face, groaning. They were all going to ask questions about what had happened that day, and I…I wasn’t… **_I wasn’t ready._** I did feel a bit bad about blowing off...um...Mark, was it? Shoot, I had already forgotten.

A small flash of blue caught my eye, drawing me to look at the mailboxes. There were a couple small blue lights flashing on the mailboxes, each on a different slot. One was on the apartment I had been given. Did that mean I had mail? Shoot, did the apartment key also open this? I probably should have read that note after all. Fumbling the key out and slotting it into the keyhole, I was relieved to see that it did. Inside were two large envelopes and one smaller one. Of course, they were all large enough that I had to tuck them beneath my arm in order to close the mailbox up and lock it. I kept the key in my hand as I climbed the stairs, shoving it into the door lock carelessly. I tossed it on the small table by the front door, walking back into the living room—and stopping dead as my eyes met that of the giant cat bun still sitting innocently in the room.

Right.

I dropped the mail onto the coffee table and began figuring out what to do with the bun.

_"Will you let me go to sleep if I do?"_

_"Promise I will."_

Eventually I settled for the plan of tearing the bun into pieces and shoving it where I could. Hopefully I could fit most, if not all of it, into the fridge. It had taken the better part of two hours to tear the bun apart and wrap the pieces in the plastic wrap, made longer by the discovery that the bun was not only frosted, but cream filled as well. Licking my fingers, I hummed happily. It was a cinnamon bun, and the cream filling was absolutely to die for.

Wrapping the last chunk and placing it on the counter next to the now very full fridge, I considered asking if anyone knew what bakery the Caretakers had gotten the bun from, even though that would require interacting with the curious bitties outside. It was possibly the best pastry I had ever had, and while I wasn’t one to eat much anymore, I could see myself indulging in sweets from wherever had spawned this bun _quite_ easily. It was a testament to its flavor that not only had I been unable to refrain from scarfing down a chunk while I worked, savoring the cream and frosting on my fingers, but that I was also willing to risk another awkward conversation with those outside.

I glanced up at the clock on the wall. I had spent most of the morning taking the bun apart and now it was coming up on noon. Washing my hands of the sticky residue of frosting and cream, I shook them over the sink to dry them, thinking. I didn’t really have any plans, and there didn’t seem to be much to do in the Village. Perhaps I should take up my old standby of sleeping for absurd amounts of the day? It was better than boredom **_~~of remembering I was alone now.~~_**

Probably should check the mail I got first, though. Flopping down on the couch, I snagged the mail off the table, ripping into the smaller letter. It was a notice that a monster by the name of Jecca Fysh would be by around 1 pm today, to take me shopping. I was to meet her by the front gate. She was also going to explain some things about living in the Village and bitty life, so that would be helpful. I looked at the clock again. I had a little over an hour before 1 pm.

The first of the larger envelopes I opened contained a sheaf of papers and several small pill bottles containing my Sertraline. How lovely, the pills I had stopped taking weeks ago were here. I had stopped when they moved the First Group, and with everything going on after that, no one checked to be sure I was taking them. I had felt awful for the first week, all nausea, fogged thoughts, and cold sweats from quitting cold turkey, but whatever. They hadn’t been helping at all anyway, and they made me dizzy sometimes.

The last envelope was bulging with paperwork from the hospital. A diet plan, a workout recommendation, destressing techniques, the works. I tossed them back on the coffee table, not bothering to read them. I would throw them away later. I didn’t need any of it. I had no plans of following their recommendations. It was far too much effort.

Sighing, I dropped myself further into the couch. Everything was too much effort, really. I had used up all my energy early today, flitting about outside. A smile pulled my lips. It had been nice, though. I really did like those flowers.

_ "...I guess I miss flowers." _

* * *

I spent more time avoiding other bitties than I did actually walking to the gate, keeping my head down as I skirted the busier areas. As I walked up to the gate, I noticed a double-sided gate-keeper’s booth off to one side, embedded in the wall. It was comically large compared to the 3ft tall wall, clearly designed to hold larger monsters. I could see a dog monster sitting in the booth, smoking what looked like a dog treat. It smelled oddly sweet, cloying almost with how sugary it hung in the air. The monster was dressed snappily in a black uniform, gold edging the cuffs of their sleeves and outlining the Cross Clan symbol on their chest. As I got closer, their nose started twitching, and they snapped their head over to me, silvered eyes intense. I froze up, not expecting the intensity they watched me with. His gaze unfocused, darting about to try as if he couldn't see me.

A slightly peeved growl. “Keep moving, Bitty. Can’t see ya if ya don’t.” The gravelly voice was raspy as he spoke around his dog treat. Oh, his eyes weren’t just silvery—he was partially blind. I started to shift on my feet, hoping the slight movement would be enough. His eyes refocused on me, and his spiked collar clinked against his dog tags as he leaned over the counter to watch me. “Ah, there ya are. What can I do for ya, little Bitty?” I was going to have to accept being called little by monsters, wasn’t I?

“I’m supposed to be meeting someone here. A Jecca?” He narrowed his eyes, snorting out another cloud of sweet smoke. The cherry of his dog treat glowed as he breathed in, before he pulled the treat from his muzzle.

“Guess that would make ya Elizabeth, then?” I nodded and he chuffed. “Jecca’s just outside the gate, waitin’ with Sploot. Give me a sec, I’ll let ya through.” He took one last drag on his treat before snuffing it out in a small dish.

I wasn’t sure I had heard that name right. Sploot? Like, the onomatopoeia, or like when dogs laid down with their legs behind them? “Um, thanks…”

The dog monster puffed his chest a bit. “Whippet, Dog Squad, Cross Clan Royal Guard.” He was a dog monster, named after a breed of dog? Appropriate, I guess.

“Thank you then, Guard Whippet.” I think that was how I was supposed to address him. He didn’t seem opposed to it at least, chuffing again. He reached around the corner of the booth and grabbed the gate, pulling it open. I raised an eyebrow; I had been expecting a button or something, but now that I thought about it, a Guard had pulled the gate open yesterday too. Seemed inconvenient to me, but it did its job of keeping Bitties in the Village, so I guess it worked for them.

Ugh, no think mildly positive. I had to get through this and at least appear put together and not like I had a mental breakdown last night. I was already starting at a disadvantage, seeing as I was in mental patient white with _no shoes still_. Gotta play this cool.

I slouched my way through the gate, hands shoved back in the pockets. The gate closed with a light clang behind me and I was left standing outside the Village. There was a pair of monsters off to my right, but I paid them little mind. I was too busy taking in the city before me. The gate must have been located right between two of the districts, for the left and right of the road were vibrantly different. The buildings themselves didn’t look too out there—though there were some that seemed to defy gravity and physics in their construction—except for the fact they were all massive. It was what was between the buildings that differentiated the districts.

The district to my left could have been right out of a romantic Parisian movie, or a painting. I could see parks peeking out from between the buildings, and trees laced with the lights that I had seen hanging in the Village sparkling cheerily in multiple different blushes of color. Along the walls of the buildings and the wrought metal of the streetlamps were draped long swoops of flowers, buzzing with bees and fluttering with butterflies. I could hear laughter echoing from the streets as the monsters there went about their days. I itched to sneak over and explore, to brush my fingers across the flowers—there were quite a few of the orange variety that had been in the Village.

The district on my right could have put Venice to shame. Waterfalls poured down the sides of several buildings, spilling into waterways that sparkled in the afternoon light. The mist from some left rainbows to dance in the air over the bridges connecting the roads and walkways. Further in I could just barely see what looked to be parks floating on larger sections of water, smaller chunks of land filled with flowers bobbing about. Curling up the edges of the streetlights were the blue flowers I had seen earlier, glowing gently. A hum of activity could be heard, idle chatter from the monsters walking the bridges.

I had to give it to monsters, they knew how to make a place pretty. It wasn’t just the décor, though. There was something more, something just vibrantly alluring about what I could see, something about the air that seemed to dance. It was almost tangible, whatever it was. It made me want to wander the streets, to feel it brush my skin. I almost wandered right off, led by the siren’s call I could hear. I would have too, had I not been startled out of my preoccupation.

“Bwoof!” The loud bark and subsequent clanking of metal armor had me bringing my attention finally to the monsters who had been close by. The dog monster in gold and black armor trotted over to stand almost on top of me, holding his halberd in one paw. His tongue lolled out happily as he panted. “Bwoof!”

“Ah, Guard Sploot, be careful!” The finned monster the dog had been…barking with? Anyway, she came over. It was a fish monster, her long trailing fins flopping down her back like iridescent blue hair. “Bitties are so small, so please watch your step!” She squatted down, legs to one side to be closer to my height. She was still tall enough that I had to crane my neck painfully to meet her gaze. “You must be Elizabeth! I am your escort for the day, Jecca Fysh. I’ll be helping you get some groceries and clothing.” I could feel her gaze on my bare feet, as her smile twitched. Look fish lady, they didn’t give me any. I paused.

She was a fish monster. Named Fysh. Why. Were monsters just—you know what? I was going to stop questioning monster naming. From this point on, just accepting they were terrible at it and moving on.

“Bet, actually. Not Elizabeth.” My abrupt tone had the sharp-toothed grin on Jecca’s face dropping a bit. Shoot, right, was trying not to raise any red flags. “But, uh, yeah. That’s me.” Good save, definitely nailed that one.

Her smile picked back up as she beamed down at me. “Wonderful! Oh!” She gestured to the dog monster still nearly standing on me. I had tried backing up twice now, and he just took a step forward with me each time. “This is Guard Sploot, of the Cross Dog Squad. He was just keeping me company until you arrived.” Sploot—not questioning not, I’m not—gave another ‘bwoof’ and dropped to all fours in front of me. He shoved his muzzle in my face, eyes wide. Oh god, the puppy eyes were out. “Oh, but aren’t you on duty?” He whined at Jecca’s question, causing her to laugh. “Well, I won’t rat out a few mid-shift pets!”

Pet him? Was that what this was about? I stared at the thick white fluff surrounding the glittering black eyes in my face. He did look soft…and I was a sucker for puppy eyes. Damn it. I reached out hesitantly, slowly letting my fingers sink into the cloudlike fur between his eyes. Oh wow, he really was soft… and so warm… Patting his head, I felt my jaw go slack. Had his neck just stretched? It had, it turned out, stretched, and continued to do so with every pat I gave him. After a bit, his head was behind me and I had to stop. He seemed fine, though? “Um, I can’t reach you anymore. Sorry?”

Standing back up, the now toweringly necked dog monster gave a ‘bwoof!’ and ran off. “He said thank you. Honestly though, stopping for pets on a patrol! How scandalous!” I would have to take her word for it. “Well, shall we be off? We don’t need to go all that far—the Tale District has a general store nearby that has the most adorable Bitty goods!” It twinged a little that she referenced Bitty products like they were pet goods. Nice to see how we were being viewed. Jecca didn’t notice my distress, turning to the right of the gates. I was rather relieved she didn’t try to pick me up. I was fine touching… Sploot, but I had a feeling that was because he was fluffy.

As we walked—or Jecca walked, I trotted to keep up—I listened to her ramblings. We passed over one of the footpath bridges and I stuck my head through the stone banisters to look at the water. There were fish in the water, flitting about beneath the floating flowers that bobbed gently on the surface. I could swear the crystal stones that I could see were also glowing a gentle blue beneath the water, like the flowers drifting slowly. “So, as I’m sure you’ve guessed, there are some rules in place for Bitties—for your safety! You all are just so small! And delicate too! It really is worrying. The major one is that if you want to leave the Village for some reason, you need an escort to get you there and back. It's just to make sure you don’t get lost, or stepped on, or run over, or anything really!”

I pulled my head back from between the stone banister and caught up to her. I had to hold my tongue on how I felt about needing a minder to leave the Village **_needing someone to take the pet on a walk_**. “How would I go about getting an…escort for the day?”

“Good question! You need to submit a request at least two days in advance, at the Guard station by the front gate. Whoever is on duty at the time will help you fill out the forms—they are monster-sized, after all—and you’ll receive a letter the day before your outing with your escort’s name and when to meet them. It's really all very simple, and you barely need to do anything.” Except formally request to be taken for my walk, that is. The thought was almost enough to spoil the beautiful scenery for me.

Almost.

We walked for a couple minutes longer, the Beta fish monster—which I realized when she caught sight of her reflection and flared her fins up, before realizing it was herself with an embarrassed chuckle—continuing to explain to me the rules of the Village. I listened with half an ear, keeping my eyes on the monsters we passed, and twitching a bit at the cooing I could hear about me. I was not loving all the attention, nor being constantly referred to as tiny. My pride—what little I had left, that was—was smarting by the time we reached the general store.

It looked like a grocery store I would have seen before, though some of the items on the shelves were… odd. What was a ghost sandwich? Why was that parfait glittering? I didn’t ask though, as Jecca grabbed a basket and took off down the aisles with me trailing behind. She kept asking if I liked certain foods, to which I said I did—I wasn’t really paying much attention to what she was grabbing, since I wasn’t really planning on eating it anyway. She seemed pleased I wasn’t too picky though, so at least my lack of input wasn’t impacting her impression of me.

Eventually we reached a block of aisles set up as a clothing department. “Ahhhhh, they’re so cute!” She put down the basket—oh wow that was full, I was going to have to carry that later, wasn’t I? At least it was all Bitty-sized—and snagged a shirt off a hook. “Ugh, it must be so convenient to have standard body shapes like humans do! Most wouldn’t be able to wear things off the rack even if they did carry our sizes, what with wings and fins and tails and such.” I fingered a pair of pants. I hadn’t really thought about it, but that would be true, huh? With the variation in how monsters looked, clothing shopping would be a nightmare. It was hard enough finding clothing that fit one general body shape.

“Here! This is the smallest size they have, try it on.” Jecca placed a large t-shirt on the rim of the basket, not trying to hand it to me. I could already tell this wasn’t going to fit me properly, clearly having been made for a bitty closer to 1ft 10in. I slipped it over my head.

Yup.

“Erm, well, this is unfortunate. I had…no idea! That we would need a tailor as well! So, I, um, didn’t block for that time or location.” Jecca sounded honestly upset, looking at the oversized shirt that hung off me. I was basically swimming in the t-shirt, the hem reaching my knees. “I had just assumed that the clothing you had was oversized because they didn’t have smaller. Now I see it’s because there isn’t smaller! Oh no, shoes—how are we supposed to get you shoes?”

I sighed, shoving the shirt off my body. Actually, I just pulled my arms out of the sleeves and let it pool around my feet, but hey. I had expected this--all the clothing I had had since becoming a bitty was oversized to the extreme on me. “It's fine. I’ll just get a bunch of hoodies, and, I don’t know, leggings maybe, and pass them off as hoodie dresses or something. And I’ll figure the shoes thing out later.” I just wanted this to be over, really. I probably wouldn't do anything about the shoes. I did wonder idly about what had happened to the shoes I had worn in the facility, before shoving that thought away. I remembered all too well how I lost one of that pair.

Jecca considered that for a long moment. “Well… I suppose that’s fine then. Not _ideal_ , but on your next outing you can submit to go to a tailor for better clothing. I would like to get you some form of shoe, however…” She wasn’t successful—the smallest shoe was double my foot size. As she went off to put all the shoes back, I wandered the aisle a bit. Something near the end of the far caught my eye. I stretched up, just barely able to pull it off its hook.

It was a pair of striped gloves, the kind I would wear as a kid. Fingering the slightly coarse knit fibers, I could feel the material catch on my scars. I pulled them on, holding my hands out to examine them. The monochromatic striped gloves fit like…gloves. More importantly, they covered the silver lines on my hands.

“Hm? Gloves?” I shot my head up. I hadn’t heard Jecca walk back over. “While it is nice you found something in your size, I don’t believe you’ll need them. It's midsummer right now!” I fidgeted a bit, feeling the fabric rub my fingers.

“I like to be prepared.” I excused, to which she narrowed her eyes. I think she could tell I wasn’t being truthful, but Jecca let it go. She tapped a webbed finger against her chin as I put the gloves into the basket. “Well, I would have preferred to have found you some footwear of any kind, but we are about out of time. I’m sorry Bet.” I shrugged, as she took us back to the checkout. Again, not like it really mattered ~~**_or that she was really sorry._**~~ She swiftly bagged up the goods and clothing, carrying them on one arm easily.

The walk back seemed to go quicker, passing in the blink of an eye while Jecca chattered on, gesturing broadly with her bag laden arms. When we reached the gate, she plopped them down and turned to me. Whippet reached out and pulled the gate open for me. “Are you sure you’ll be able to get this all back to your apartment? I would be more than happy to help you!” I began scooping up the bags. Oof, yeah those were heavy.

“I got it. Thanks.” She didn’t look convinced but wasn’t able to protest further as I quickly walked off. Actually, she probably could have. I was less than 2ft tall and struggling under bags and bags of goods; I wasn't going anywhere particularly fast. Not my most polite exit, to be sure--and probably blowing my attempt to be _not suspicious_ \--, but I was tired and I did not want her to come in with me. It would just draw attention I didn’t want. And the sooner I got back, the sooner I could put the gloves back on. Slipping through the Village as fast as I could, I skirted around several groups, my head down. No one tried to call out to me this time, and I reached the apartment in short order. 

I dropped the bags to the floor, huffing and panting from the exertion. Stairs were murder carrying these things, and I wasn’t exactly in shape anyway. I dragged the bags of food to the kitchen and opened the fridge. Oh, right, it was full. Of cat bun. Well, I guess it could stay on the floor then—not like monster food went bad or anything. I didn’t even bother taking the clothing out of the bags, just chucking them into the bedroom. I did retrieve the gloves though, slipping them back on my hands with relief.

Flopping down on the couch, I groaned. That had been singularly demeaning, but not awful. I wasn’t a fan of requiring a minder to leave the Village, a babysitter or dog walker in kind. Still, having to check in and have someone be aware of my whereabouts at all times, to be watched and monitored... Yeah, fuck that. The food wasn’t going to expire, I had clothing—I wasn’t submitting for an escort. Turning my head, I could see out the glass doors. The trees blocked most of the view beyond the walls, but I could see glimpses of brick buildings and metal piping as the leaves sway in the slight breeze. It looked nothing like what I had seen of the districts today.

An idea was growing in my mind, a smirk appearing to match. Just because I wasn’t going to have an escort didn’t mean I wasn’t going to be looking around the city, however. As the sun brushed the leaves of the birch tree outside the sliding doors, casting shadows on the bark of the tree that I could have sworn made the eye shapes blink, I began to make my plans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not Shown:  
> -Coffee cooing over how cute Bet is when she's excited about flowers.  
> -Bet spending two hours alternating between cursing at the bun and apologizing to it.  
> -Bitties staring at the dog head they can see over the trees circling the Village.  
> -Jecca getting flustered about shopping for socks with someone, so she just avoided it.
> 
> Hey all! Just want to remind everyone to never stop your prescribed anti-depressants cold turkey and/or without doctor approval! It can really mess you up and lead to super negative side effects on your mental and physical health. I’m not covering it here, but Bet absolutely went through more than nausea when she quit. Seriously, don’t do it. Also, I looked up anti-depressants and Sertraline is the best match for the story, and is an SSRI! (I am no doctor though, so apologies if it isn’t quite right)
> 
> Also, introducing half of the Cross Dog Squad: Cross!Doggo Whippet and Cross!LesserDog Sploot. I had to name so many dog monsters for this story, and the odds of any of them showing up is so low. I don't know why I did it, actually.
> 
> Oh, and hopefully you got to see a bit of Bet's personality other than "TRAUMATIZED". I adore my salty child, but until this story gets a bit further in, she's basically just pissy and tired. Which honestly is fairly relatable.


	5. Seeing Stars

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The obligatory training montage is interrupted by naps and field sriracha. Alternatively, it appears everyone is scheming.

The sun was warm against my skin, filtered as it was through the birch leaves above me. I was lying beneath the tree behind the apartment complex, enjoying the feel of the grass beneath me. The metallic gold flowers nearby glowed brightly in the sunlight, tilting their faces to me as I sighed. I had been spending much of my time this last week outside, following the edges of the wall. It had taken that long to get a good grasp on the Guard patrols. The Guard was extremely regular, the monsters taking around 15 minutes to make one lap of the Village. It took me around an hour to do the same. I was almost comfortable enough with the schedule to make my move.

I just still needed to find a way out.

There was only one main way in and out of the Village: the front gate. That was an obvious and immediate no go; it was constantly manned…monstered? Whatever, it had a Guard there at all times from what I could see, even when I checked late at night after a less than restful attempt at sleep. So yeah, no way that was my way out.

I had spent time examining the wall for any convenient gaps or breaks, but no luck on that front either. It was no construction, there had been no time for degradation, and though I was loath to admit it, it was well constructed as well. It was an even 3ft around the whole Village, with murals tiled and painted around the entire span depicting different landscapes that I didn’t recognize. Nothing grabbable unfortunately, it was too smooth for me to get purchase to climb. So directly through or over the wall was out as well.

Which left me my last idea—the trees. All the trees within the Village were tall enough to have branches that were above the wall, and several were close enough to the wall for those same branches to hang out over the streets beyond. It seemed like a fair bet—heh—until I remembered that not only would I have to climb the trees that were _several_ magnitudes of my height, but then I would also need to _get down_. I had no clue how to achieve that second bit, but I had set the issue aside until I figured out the getting up the tree bit.

Which was why I was here, munching on a chunk of cat bun while I tried to psyche myself up to climb a tree. There was an oak tree nearby that I thought would be my best bet for practice, with wide bark cracks and knots for me to grasp and a branch only 8 or so feet above the ground. Ideal for practice or not, that still meant I would be free climbing at least 8ft. I wasn’t ashamed to note that I wasn’t the most athletic individual, even before I became a bitty, and even less so after that fact. I had been getting a bit better with my constant use of the stairs—fuck the elevator, never again—but I was still lacking a lot of the necessary muscle mass. So, I had chosen this oak tree for practice, not only due to its possibly more climbable nature, but also because it was behind the apartment. If I fell and died here, no one would see it happen.

Yay.

I licked the last of the cream from my fingers, wiping my hands dry on the hoodie I wore before slipping back on my gloves. I did so with relish. I had to take them off when I ate, or they would get dirty. And then I would need to wash them, which would mean even more time without them covering my hands. Not a fan of that at all. I groaned as I stood up, stretching. I was so sore, everything seemed to ache.

Guess not sleeping all that much was getting to me. I rubbed a hand against my shoulder, trying to work out some of the stiffness. I did my best to avoid thinking about it during the day, but at night I couldn’t avoid it. When I slept, I was right back there, reliving everything.

_ A hand grasps my neck, yanking me back from the doors I had almost reached. The callouses on his fingers press harshly into my skin as he squeezes slowly, laughing. _

So, I wasn’t exactly eager to sleep anymore and had been _mildly_ avoiding it. Mildly. I guess it wasn’t surprising that the lack of regular sleep was starting to take its toll on my body.

Staring up at the oak tree I had chosen, I sighed. I was not looking forward to this. I really wasn’t athletic at all; I looked more akin to a pale twig in doll clothes than a person at this point, let alone one with the general ability to climb. I rolled up the sleeves of the hoodie further and did my best to dig my fingers into the bark of the tree. I was able to fit my fingers in fairly easily, the cracks and reams in the bark bigger in width than my fingers were, and I pulled myself up with shaking arms. Once I got my toes worked into the bark too, it became a lot easier to gain height.

Oh yeah, still had no shoes or socks. Not leaving the Village via babysitter meant I couldn’t exactly go shopping anywhere, but you know, whatever. The no-shoes thing was working for climbing this tree, and it hadn’t been an issue yet for me. I actually really enjoyed being able to feel the grass beneath my feet, so it wasn’t too much of a hardship. As for the socks… I am not actually sure why I didn’t buy any when I was out with…um, Jenna? Shoot, I really was awful at names when I didn’t care.

I was breathing pretty heavily by the time I made it to the lowest branch, hauling myself up with trembling arms and flopping across it. Okay, yeah I was going to need to get in better shape if this climbing plan was going to be a thing. I pulled myself out of my splay, resting my back against the trunk of the tree, legs draped over either side of the branch. I sat there, staring out over the wall at the bit of city I could see. It was the Swap district, full of flowers and laughter still. It was…

Peaceful.

I let my eyes close, listening to the sounds of the birds and the murmur of voices echoing out from the streets. I could just faintly hear what sounded like piano music as well, the jazzy notes floating on the slight breeze that rustled the leaves around me. I could feel my muscles relaxing a bit as I snuggled back against the tree, feeling the warm sun on my body.

…

…

…

“…itty?” Hmm? I snuggled back against the tree a bit further, curling in a bit. The sun didn’t feel so warm anymore. Had a cloud blocked it? Unfortunate, but I would wait it out. I was so comfortable… “Bitty, No! That Is Not A Safe Place To Nap!” I grumbled and curled up further. That monster was loud. Wonder who he was talking to? The monster huffed. “I Am Serious, Bitty! Do Not Make Me Come Over This Wall!” I flipped my hood up, tightening the strings to try and block out the monster. Whoever it was needed to respond to him already. “Oh, So It’s Going To Be Like That! Alright Then.”

A soft thump and the sound of approaching stomping. Man, that bitty must be really close… wait. My eyes shot open as soft gloves brushed up against me, fingers slipping under me with ease. Whoa! NO. I began to struggle, the fingers gently wrapping around me to hold me still. I could see the cornflower blue of the gloves extend to white uniform sleeves. A Guard member? “Wowie, Little Bitty! You’re Really Light, Aren’t You???” I whipped my head up to yell at who was holding me, my hood falling off, and—

Stars. Bright, beautiful blue stars. They glittered lightly as I stared up at them. I had never… They glowed. They glowed with something I could almost feel on my skin, something warm and hope-filled. I had never seen anything like them before. The stars grew in size, twinkling down at me. I was brought away from the glowing stars, revealing them to be situated in large eye sockets.

The stars were eyes. The eyes of a skeleton monster, to be exact. His chubby cheekbones—how? Just how?—were pushed up in a wide grin that crinkled the bone at the corners of his wide sockets. His crisp white and blue Guard uniform stood out, the Swap clan symbol prominent on his chest. A similarly cornflower blue bandana was around his neck, the tied tails fluttering lightly. The warm hands cradling me brushed my sides, his thumbs rubbing against me in small circles. It felt _~~nice I never wanted him to stop~~_ patronizing, like I was an unruly kitten to be placated.

Holy shit.

He was adorable.

This skeleton literally had _stars in his eyes._ How? Could that level of cute exist? And his chubby cheeks made him look so soft… Wait, no. Focus. First, he was bone—not a soft material. Second, this little shit had picked me up and was _petting me._ Not alright with that at all _~~it felt so nice.~~ _I began to struggle in his hands again and he wrapped his fingers a bit more securely around me. He chuckled, his eye sockets scrunching up a bit.

“Hey, Don’t Do That! I Could Drop You!” His voice was lilting, bouncing with the energy that seemed infused into his bones. This was like interacting with one of those cute Japanese things... a chibi? Except this one was like six times my height. Unacceptably cute. Was it a skeleton thing? This was the second skeleton I had met, and both were absolutely adorable.

I squirmed in his hands, shoving at his fingers. They didn’t move in the slightest. This cuddly skeleton was rather strong it seemed—or I was incredibly weak. I would prefer to believe it was the first, however. “Put me down!”

Surprisingly, he listened. He sat down on the grass, gently setting me between his legs as he sat in a butterfly sit. He rested his cheek against his hand, propping himself up a bit to look down at me. I was trapped between his legs. Unless I climbed over his limbs I wasn’t getting away, and I had doubts I would manage to scale him before he grabbed me. “Geez, Little Bitty! You Need To Be More Careful! It’s Very Easy For A Bit To Get Hurt, You Know.”

I spun to face him again, backing up until I was nearly against his blue boots. “Well, I wouldn’t have been in that position if you hadn’t picked me up! You can’t just pick people up!” For that matter, how had he even seen me? The branch I had been would have been above him!

“Well, Perhaps Someone Shouldn’t Have Been In A Tree Then. Heights Are Not Safe For Little Bitties, Little Bitty!” He wagged a finger at me, ignoring the growl I sent him in response. I would not be patronized by this animated plushy!

“I was fine! And don’t call me that; I have a name.” The skeleton blinked— _how???_ —innocently, his eye lights continuing to sparkle.

“But Little Bitty, I Don’t Know Your Name?”

I was going to fight this skeleton. I know I had said I would get used to monsters calling me small, but this was aggressively unnecessary. “Argh, stop!” He tilted his head, his grin dimming a little as he brought a finger up to his teeth.

“But What Should I Call You Then, If I Don’t Have Your Name, Little Bitty?”

Oh for fucks sake! “It’s Bet! My name is Bet!” His grin returned full force, nearly blinding me as he shined down upon me.

“It’s Wonderful To Meet You Bet! I Am The Magnificent Blue, Swap Royal Guardsmonster!”

Nope. I was done here. “It’s not wonderful to meet you. Let me out!” I turned away from him and started to try to climb over his boots. He shifted them slightly, knocking me back down into his leg ring. I fell back on my rear with an “oof.”

“No~” I spun around on my knees, glaring up at the annoying ~~adorable~~ skeleton grinning down at me. What the hell. He tilted his head again, eye lights twinkling as he raised his hand. He was holding his phone, which _clicked_. Had…had he just taken a photo of me? He hummed and tapped away on his screen for a moment. **_What The Hell._**

“Did you just take a photo of me?” He slipped his phone back into his pocket, smiling down at me. I could practically see sparkles in the air around him.

“Yes! You Are Too Cute!” My face felt hot from anger _~~embarrassment~~_ , and I stood up. Crossing my arms, backed up against his boots. This was ridiculous.

“Wha- You can’t just do that!”

“But? I Did???”

Oh, this skeleton was a brat. “You fuck right off.” Okay, a little aggressive. That was my bad, but he really was pushing me!

Blue shot to his feet, a finger out to scold me. I took the opportunity to back up again. “Language, Bitty! Also, No?” I growled a little. I genuinely was going to fight this fucker at this rate, regardless of my size.

“Agh! I told you, my name is Bet!”

“I Heard You.” _I WAS GOING TO FIGHT HIM._

“ _Then use my name!_ ”

“Maybe.”

I stomped my foot like a child. I would feel embarrassed about that later. “No, not ‘maybe’!”

“Mweh Heh Heh!” Oh god his laugh was adorable. No, still mad! “But Don’t Friends Have Nicknames For Each Other?”

“We aren’t friends!” I didn’t need friends _~~they all would leave anyway.~~_ I wasn’t going to be friends with this adorable asshole.

“I Would Like To Be!” His smile seemed to dim for a second. “Besides, It Looks Like You Need A Friend.”

“I don’t need anyone.” My chest gave a throb as I said that, and my fingers twitched to press against my sternum. I must have paled at the pain or something, because Blue bent over a bit more to look at me, his eye lights filled with something odd. He was shadowed by the sun behind him, his starry eye lights glowing in his face.

“…Are You Sure? You Don’t Look Too Good.”

I had to go. I had to leave. “Look, I don’t need your help. I… I’ve got to go!” I didn’t turn around as I sprinted into the apartment building to hide from Blue. He let me go, seeing as I made it into the building. If he had wanted to, I’m sure he could have stopped me.

“Okay, I Will See You Later!” I sat in the lobby, listening to the thundering of his steps as he sprinted away. I dropped my head to my knees, sitting on the cool floor as I groaned. He was so aggravating! It would be too soon if I never had to talk to him again. My chest gave another throb and I scrunched up. What was wrong with me? I sighed, tilting my head to rest my cheek against my knee.

Okay, I would admit it. He was absolutely adorable, even with how aggravating he was. It wasn’t fair that I was so weak to cute things, especially with how persistent he was. I had the feeling that this wouldn’t be the only time I saw Blue, not after that declaration. I looked down at my hands, flexing them in my gloves.

Friends…

_ “Don’t be like that, meimei. Won’t you both send me off with smiles?” _

I wasn’t sure how to feel about that, or him really. Who just comes up to someone and says they want to be friends? It was so forward! And unnecessary, I reminded myself. I didn’t need anyone. I was fine on my own. I ignored the harsh throb at the thought of being alone and the tears that pricked my eyes. It didn’t matter. Everyone left eventually, so why should I get to know them? Letting someone in would only hurt me.

_ “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry Bet…” _

It didn’t matter.

_~~Please don’t leave me alone.~~ _

* * *

Binoculars glinted in the sunlight, peeking over the edge of the building, a half-full bottle of sriracha sitting on the ledge. He had been gathering information for days now, watching their movements, narrowing down the options for his target, and today, he had made his decision.

Blue was going to meet a bitty.

He reached up, taking a swig of his sriracha. He had spent the last week observing the movements of the bitties from the nearby rooftops, forming tactical observations. Most of them clumped together in groups, chattering and playing in the park sections. While soulwarming, that behavior wasn’t ideal for what he needed—he needed a loner, someone who was off on their own often. He had spotted a couple of bitties who had a tendency to wander off, but there was one who was just _perfect._ She was almost always pacing the wall around the Village, seeming to take enjoyment in the flowers planted about. She was almost always _alone_.

Blue hummed, adjusting his binoculars to fix on his target. He had spotted her on his third day of watching, almost missing the tiny bitty behind the flower she was inspecting. She was tiny, far smaller than any of the other bitties, generally coming up to about the bottom of their ribcages. All her clothing hung off her, clearly designed for larger bitties. Today she was once again swimming in her hoodie, the neck hanging off one shoulder despite her having pulled the strings as tight as they went, tying them in a knot to hold the neck tight. She had the sleeves rolled as far as she could, but they still engulfed her hands, just like the leggings she wore. He could see she was barefoot again today—a necessity then, not a choice. If clothing was that big on her, shoes would similarly be as large.

While he found the sight of the swamped bitty quite cute, it also made his bones itch. Why had she not been taken to get her clothing fitted properly, or even just to purchase appropriately sized footwear? It spoke of a laxness in her care that Blue did not appreciate. With how few bitties remained, such negligence was unacceptable! He would bring it up for discussion later, drop a few hints to Edge or Wine; the higher ranked Guards would have more leeway to act.

He took another drink of his sriracha. The bitty was seated underneath one of Coffee’s trees, eating some sort of pastry as she reclined. He wanted to coo as she licked the cream from her tiny fingers, blue eyes sparkling at the flavor. She was just adorable! The dark eyebags around her eyes did worry him, however. He was becoming increasingly concerned about this little bitty—no fitting clothes, possibly unhealthy sleep schedule, and all he had seen her eat was pastry chunks! It was singularly unhealthy and lacking in tacos! Blue eye lights narrowed as he put down his binoculars to grab his phone, no stars to be seen. Opening his notes app, he began recording all his observations about the little bitty. Yes, he would be bringing this up with Wine later. Sometimes Blue regretted his decision to play into the assumptions people had about him—he could have been Swap Captain by now and would have had the authority to look into the bitty’s situation. Still, the long term benefits of his choice far outweighed the inconveniences. Blue tilted his skull back, humming a bit. Perhaps he should also drop some hints to the others to spend some time around the Village… see if they could keep a socket on her? Hm, he would see.

First though, he needed to make contact with this bitty.

Finishing off his sriracha, Blue slipped the empty bottle into his Inventory and lifted his binoculars back up. Oh, she wasn’t under the tree anymore. Where had she—his eye lights flickered out as his grip tightened. What _exactly_ did she think she was doing? The tiny bitty was hauling herself onto the lowest branch of a nearby oak tree, breathing heavily. What had possessed her to try climbing the tree? What if she had fallen? She easily could have been fatally injured! Watching her settle back against the tree, Blue felt his soul stuttering in his panic. He shoved his binoculars into his Inventory, standing from where he had been crouched behind the lip of the roof. He had to step in—she could hurt herself!

_Fwoo-tmp_

Blue stepped out of the alley behind the building, straightening his uniform slightly. He plastered on his innocent grin and blinked his eye lights to stars; wouldn’t do to be seen without them, Mweh Heh Heh! He could see her from here, her brown hair fluttering slightly in the breeze. She was reclined on the branch, propped up by the trunk of the tree, eyes closed. Her breathing was slow, her face relaxed. She was asleep. In the tree.

Oh stars help him.

Blue walked over quickly, his rather fashionable boots tapping on the pavement. He stood on the other side of the wall from her as a cloud moved over the sun. His eye lights darted all over her tiny form, softening as a warm smile grew on his skull. She was much smaller up close—he didn’t think she would even clear his knees if she was standing. She snuggled back against the tree and he chuckled. How cute.

“Now, That Isn’t The Best Place For You To Relax. Don’t You Agree, Bitty?” Blue would have thought his magically amplified voice would be enough to wake her, but she barely stirred. He raised a bone brow; really asleep huh? Time to put on the full show then. “Bitty, No! That Is Not A Safe Place To Nap!” Blue’s grin grew at the grumble the little bitty gave, and he leaned against the hipbone height wall as he looked up at where the bitty was.

“I Am Serious, Bitty! Do Not Make Me Come Over This Wall!” She flipped her hood up. Blue blinked. She was acting just like Stretch when he didn’t want to get up, ignoring him. Well, if that was how she was going to be, he would just do the same. “Oh, So It’s Going To Be Like That! Alright Then.” He hopped over the wall with ease, and with a jump Blue was sitting on the branch with the bitty. Slipping his fingers gently beneath her, he held her tight as he dropped back down to the ground. She began struggling in his hold, clearly startled. “Wowie, Little Bitty! You’re Really Light, Aren’t You???”

Goodness, what had she been thinking putting herself in such a dangerous situation? She was so light… much lighter than Blue thought she should be, even with her tiny size. She was so fragile looking and soft… She whipped her head up to look at him and Blue felt his smile grow as she stopped struggling. He could see his eye lights reflected in her own blue eyes as he held her close to his face, inspecting her. She seemed captivated by his eye lights, something that sent flutters through Blue’s soul. He was rather magnificent, wasn’t he?

He lowered her from his face, brushing his thumbs along her sides in a gentle caress. She was soft, even if she was thinner than he felt was safe. She pressed back against his fingers, seeking the warmth of his hands as she took him in. She came to her senses after a moment, going back to squirming and pushing her little black and white striped gloves against his fingers to try and move them. It felt like being shoved by a butterfly for all the force she exerted. Blue couldn’t help the chuckle at the thought, even as he adjusted his hold to keep her safe.

“Hey, Don’t Do That! I Could Drop You!” Blue fought the urge to coo at her adorable little squirms and the glare she sent him. She demanded he put her down, her voice smooth even with how upset she sounded. He would have to do so, or she could distress herself further. Hmm, but if he did she might run and that would impede his goal for the day.

Ah, solution! Blue plopped down, putting his legs into a butterfly sit with his boots pressed together and set the bitty down in the space between his legs. There! Now she would have to climb over him to get away. Goodness, he was so brilliant it simply wasn’t fair. “Geez, Little Bitty! You Need To Be More Careful! It’s Very Easy For A Bitty To Get Hurt, You Know.” Blue was all too aware of that fact himself. Bitties were terribly fragile, it pricked the protective feelings in his soul. He had always been one to protect those who needed it, and it was clear bitties definitely needed it.

The little bitty scuttled away from him until she was nearly pressed against his boots. It didn’t really mean she was all that far from him, but it seemed to make her feel a bit better. “Well, I wouldn’t have been in that position if you hadn’t picked me up! You can’t just pick people up!” Blue held back another chuckle. She was so upset, bristling like an enraged kitten and about as threatening.

“Well, Perhaps Someone Shouldn’t Have Been In A Tree Then. Heights Are Not Safe For Little Bitties, Little Bitty!” Blue wagged his finger at the little bitty, wanting to coo again at her little growl. Oh she was just precious! He knew he shouldn’t be working her up like this, but her reactions were just too cute!

“I was fine! And don’t call me that; I have a name.” She didn’t like being called little bitty then, it seemed. If only Blue had her name. He blinked, allowing his mirth to bleed through to his eye lights. He could just ask, or…

“But Little Bitty, I Don’t Know Your Name?” She seemed unaware of the little screech that left her lips or the _adorable_ flush working its way across her face. She protested his use of the term again, and Blue laid into it. He tilted his skull, dimming his smile thoughtfully as he brought a phalange to his teeth in thought. “But What Should I Call You Then, If I Don’t Have Your Name, _Little Bitty?_ ”

The bitty threw her arms up, clearly exasperated with him. “It’s Bet! My name is Bet!” Blue’s grin returned full force, a genuine pleasure in it. Bet, huh? How cute. Everything about this grouchy bitty was just too cute. He should properly introduce himself, however. It wouldn’t do for the magnificent him to be without his manners!

“It’s Wonderful To Meet You Bet! I Am The Magnificent Blue, Swap Royal Guardsmonster!” Bet turned away from Blue at this and began trying to climb over his boots. Blue raised a bone brow at the inelegant attempt.

“It’s not wonderful to meet you. Let me out!” Hm, none of that. Not yet. Blue shifted his boots to knock the bitty back into his leg corral, and he couldn’t help the coo this time at the little “oof” she gave at her landing.

“No~” She spun on her knees to glare up at Blue, and he felt his grin soften. She was so small, so cute. He wanted to keep this image in his mind forever. Hm, actually… He pulled out his phone and snapped a photo, ignoring the sputters Bet gave. He hummed happily as he set the image as his new lock screen—his home screen was still Stretch, of course. Oh, she was just too cute!

“Did you just take a photo of me?” Blue put his phone back in his pocket, ignoring the texts he had received. He was busy after all, and it was rather rude to check your phone when talking to someone. He beamed down at Bet, pushing as much of his adorability as he could at her. While it may be demeaning sometimes to be this cute, he couldn’t deny it had its uses.

Such as ensuring no one could get too mad at him and using it to poke at people. “Yes! You Are Too Cute!” The little bitty flushed hot, clearly embarrassed by his words. She stood up, pressing against his boots as she stuttered.

“Wha- You can’t just do that!” Oh, Blue hadn’t had this much fun playing with someone in months! And her reactions were just so precious! It was like playing with a grumpy little kitten. He just couldn’t help himself, despite his magnificent self-control. Besides, Blue was using this opportunity to inspect the bitty. He could confirm his thoughts on her size, she was far too thin for her size. It was upsetting. She was likely wearing those gloves because she didn’t have enough in her body to produce her own body warmth. That simply would not do!

Oh right, poking the bitty. “But? I Did???” The flush on Bet deepened to a dark red, her eyes sparkling with her irritation. Blue felt his phalanges twitch to pull his phone out again for another photo, but he refrained. There would be opportunities later on, once he had cemented himself in this little bitty’s life.

“You fuck right off.” Blue blinked. Well then. He brought himself to his feet, scolding her. There was no need for that kind of language from a little lady! “Agh! I told you, my name is Bet!” He was a grown monster. He wasn’t going to say it. He had better self-control than that. He was definitely saying it for that reaction.

“I Heard You.” Blue fought to prevent his innocent smile from turning to a smirk. Wow she was fuming. If she had been bigger, Blue might have been worried she would hurt him. As it was, she was most certainly unable to do damage to him, regardless of intent. The reports had said that bitties lacked the ability to put harmful intent into their actions, which meant any harm was purely physical. And with how much strength she clearly possessed, Blue was not concerned in the slightest.

“ _Then use my name!”_

“Maybe.”

Blue’s eye lights sparkled at the little stomp Bet gave, her face flushed and her eyes flaring. “No, not ‘maybe’!” He couldn’t help the laugh at her exasperated exclamation, enjoying how she seemed to be momentarily stunned by it. She was fairly susceptible to cute, wasn’t she? Well, it worked in his favor, so Blue wouldn’t complain.

“But Don’t Friends Have Nicknames for Each Other?” He was honestly just messing with her right now. He would think of a better nickname later on.

“We aren’t friends!” Blue gave her that. They had only just met, though they would eventually be great friends. Whether she went willingly to that stage or not. Blue was good at getting his way, and what he wanted was to be friends with this prickly little bitty. He could tell she would fight the whole way, challenging him. Blue always did enjoy a challenge.

“I Would Like To Be.” Blue let his smile dim. This would be a bit more of a risky prod, but he wanted to see how she reacted. It was evident to him that something was up with this bitty. All the other bitties had integrated in a social manner, while she seemed to be off on her own, and apparently very grouchy. Why though? He needed more information about her. “Besides, It Looks Like You Need A Friend.”

Bet flinched a bit. “I don’t need anyone.” Blue leaned over her as her face paled further, shadowing her. He could see the light from his eye lights glowing against her skin, casting her near bone white (Mweh Heh Heh!) skin in a light blue. She didn’t appear to believe her own words, looking away from his gaze.

“…Are You Sure? You Don’t Look Too Good.” The little bitty stuttered out some excuse, denying his words and sprinting off into the nearby apartment building. Her own, if Blue was correct—as he often was. He let her, mulling over her words. She didn’t need anyone?

“Okay, I Will See You Later… _I Promise._ ” He turned, making sure his footsteps were loud enough for her to hear him leaving. That phrase sat very poorly with Blue. No one should ever feel they are better off on their own, that they didn’t need anyone. It simply wasn’t true! Even the Fells, for all their posturing to hide their caring, acknowledged the need for bonds and friends, though Red and Edge would argue to their last dust they didn’t have friends, only allies.

He vaulted the wall, slowing his stride to a leisurely stroll once outside on the street. Her immediate rejection was less than ideal and spoke volumes. She was isolating herself. He had noticed she had seemed less than interested over the last couple days in interacting with the other bitties, but perhaps he could glean some information about her from them? He needed more information, some of which he would be able to obtain after bringing her to Wine or Edge’s attention, but some would have to come from those who had interacted with her, and even more would come from careful surveillance. He would be back to the Village later, to speak with the other bitties. The surveillance however…hm, well he needed to speak with the others in the house anyway.

Speaking of his extended brotherhood, he had texts to answer.

* * *

Dinners at the Serif Mansion were generally family affairs, as were most meals. They had made a point of establishing the expectation for everyone to attend, and had a rotating schedule for who was to cook for each meal. Today, it had been Papyrus, who had decided to try a delightful savory potpie recipe he had found. He was quite pleased to find it turned out as delicious as the author had claimed—as was the rest of the house. Papyrus had a history of finding questionable recipes to attempt, though the dubious honor of worst dish still was held by Edge.

“NOW, HOW WAS EVERYONE’S DAY?” Papyrus took a bite of his potpie. Splendid! Mumbles and shouts of the day’s activities sounded off, smaller conversations starting up.

Blue gave a loud Mweh Heh Heh, eye lights sparkling. “Well, Today I Met A Bitty!” The low murmur around the table died off, everyone turning to look at the smallest skeleton. Stretch raised a bone brow, taking a sip of his honey. He was well aware that his big brother had been planning for the last couple of days how to meet with one of the mini-monsters, but he pretended to be surprised nonetheless. It was more fun to play along anyway.

“oh, really bro?”

Blue puffed up, placing his fork down as he beamed. “Yes! She Was Abnormally Small And Light! And Very Tired! I Found Her Sleeping In A Tree!” Looks were exchanged around the table. That didn’t seem safe for a bitty to be doing.

Red leaned around Stretch to look at him. “…inna tree?” He must of misheard the berry. There was no way the bitty was in a tree, though the gal sounded like a bitty after his own soul. He was always down for a nap.

“Again, Yes! She Was So Cute! She Was Wearing All These Oversized Clothes And She Had No Shoes!” Edge’s grip on his fork caused the metal to deform, making Red eye him nervously. The Fell Lieutenant did not speak however, his eye lights fixed over Sans’ head across from him. It was Wine who spoke next.

“Did You Perhaps Catch This Bitty’s Name?” Wine’s question seemed almost to be idle, had he not exchanged a rather conspiratorial glance with his brother. Wine had a sneaking suspicion he knew exactly which bitty Blue had met, if only from height.

“Once Again, Yes! She Said Her Name Is Bet! She Is Very Grumpy.” A snort from Stretch was masked by the sound of Wine’s wineglass cracking in his hand. The eldest Sans gave a rather bland smile, setting the glass down.

“Oh, Is That So?” He stood up from the table, wiping his mouth politely before resting his napkin next to his plate. “I Am Afraid I Must Beg Off Of The Rest Of The Meal. Please Excuse Me.” His heeled boots clicked loudly on the floor as he strode from the dining room and to his office. Blue hid a smile behind his glass. That had been easier than he had expected—he hadn’t even needed to bring out his new lock screen background! He hadn’t expected Wine to be acquainted with the bitty, however. He wondered how that had happened. No matter, Blue now had to begin intimating to the others that perhaps spending time around the Village would be of interest. He turned to an oddly pleased looking Coffee.

“Oh Coffee, Could I Talk To You After Dinner?”

* * *

Coffee watched Blue leave his room, sipping his whipped cream and coffee. He hadn’t expected that, but he supposed he should have. Blue was a version of his brother, after all, and it wasn’t like a Sans to not be thorough when something caught their attention. And the little bitty? She had most certainly caught the elder skeleton’s interest.

Coffee plopped down in his pillow nest, setting his beloved drink down on the floor. Still, he couldn’t have asked for a better ally! Blue was persistent and adept at manipulation—he would easily be able to get the bitty to open up, Coffee was sure. And with Wine stepping in to check on her as well, there was no chance the little bitty wouldn’t start improving soon. His patience was being rewarded.

Coffee hummed. He couldn’t wait for her to feel better, so he could see her again. He didn’t want to crowd her, but he wanted to see her in person so badly. His phalanges itched to feel her soft hair again, to cuddle her close with Snuggles. Letting his eye lights flicker to the familiar almond shape, Coffee let himself _watch_.

There she was, lying on her balcony, staring up at the sunset. She was so small, and those eye bags had been growing. Coffee took comfort again in the knowledge that she would be getting better soon. He just had to continue to be patient. He could be patient.

* * *

Papyrus sat on his bed, looking out his window. The dinner discussion had reminded him of the little bitty from the facility. How was she doing, he wondered. Was she settling into the Village well? Perhaps he would see her again next week—he was being assigned to the patrol around the Village for his next rotation. It would be a good chance to run into her if he could.

Lying down, he pulled his gloves off and looked at his bones. He could still feel her in his hands. She had been so small, so delicate. The Great Papyrus was more than willing to admit he was worried about the little being. Alphys had assured him of the bitty’s recovery when he had asked, but that did little to soothe the concern in his soul. It’s just… she was so small and cold that day. He knew he could trust Alphys’ word, but he couldn’t get his soul to settle. What if something had happened while she was at the Village? Was she making friends properly? What if she was lonely? Was she eating properly?

Oh, the possibilities drove him mad! He wouldn’t be able to relax until he saw with his own sockets that she was doing alright. The Great Papyrus would simply have to do his best to see the little bitty, and perhaps, become friends…? Yes, they would become friends! Afterall, who wouldn’t want to be friends with someone as great as him?

* * *

Wine was a meticulous monster. He prided himself on being thorough in his duties, on his extensive history of near flawless work. It was something he took great pleasure in, a job well done. Every task and assignment given to him by Their Majesties was approached with nothing less than the expectation for perfection. So, it was rather understandable that he had had his pride wounded by the utter _fiasco_ that was the relocation of the bitty populace. For those placed under his protection to have been snatched away in such a permanent manner burned his soul. Oh, make no mistake, Wine was not so self-centered that his failure to account for several possibilities in the protection of his charges was his sole regret regarding the whole affair. No, he was far more… _perturbed_ by the loss of innocent lives that had been under Royal Guard care. He had never been one for waste, let alone that of a prized nature. And with as finite as they were, bitties were most certainly something to be coveted.

And Wine was a jealous, possessive monster.

Time had tempered his edges, allowing him to mask his more intense tendencies from those around him, but his nature had not changed. If something was his, it was his alone. He would take care of it for want of nothing, providing every imaginable comfort and luxury that could be desired. It was a Faustian deal, for in return for his care he expected nothing less than to possess all of it. He expected perfect control, and utter obedience. With his tendencies, it really was a wonder that Coffee had turned out as gentle and sharing as he had, though Wine supposed that may have something to do with the leniency he had allowed Coffee despite being his.

However, it was this very nature that had allowed him to excel as the Captain of the Royal Guard in a society built on oppression. It was his inclination for control that allowed him to impress Queen Scotch, and it was his possessive nature that amused her into granting him his position. It was his meticulous attention to detail in his tasks and to those in his care that cemented his control of his UnderGround. For certain, Queen Scotch was still the official ruler of his UnderGround, but to the citizenry it was _Wine_ that was to be respected, to be **feared**. And Wine was given both in equal measure, even after the ascension to the Surface had required him to temper his behaviors further. It was what made the utter audacity of the FoH to dare to _steal_ from him all the more infuriating, for while the bitties were not his, they had been placed in his care.

Still, Wine was not one to dwell. Assess, locate the failure, and amend the deficiency, yes, but to dwell and snivel regarding it? Never. As such, he had taken measures to ensure the remaining bitties were safe and well cared for. He informed the populace around the Village to be vigilant for any unexpected activity, had assigned his subordinate Guards to patrol the area, even going so far as to personally undertake the assessment of the 101st bitty’s wellbeing while in recovery. While he could not undo the loss, he could at least prevent further. Much of this prevention rested upon the most valuable commodity in Wine’s life: information. He had been assured by the Monster-Human Liaison Office that all information regarding the bitties had been passed along, all records for their care, all files and notations for their health relinquished to monster control. In fact, he had seen no evidence that there had been a fault on that front in any capacity—it had appeared that the Bitty Registry was up to date and all information accounted for, that for once the humans had properly done their jobs.

So, imagine Wine’s surprise upon logging into the Bitty Registry to see that that just wasn’t true. No, Wine was not surprised. He was fuming. Furious. _Absolutely MURDEROUS._ Full permissions for the database were supposed to have been relinquished from human control, and indeed, on the surface it did appear that that was the case. And yet, when Wine went to access bitty file H-299, he found that it remained in sole control of the _human government_. Any new information was being screened by their departments, the schedule for H-299’s care unable to sync properly with the rest of the database, and any reports filed on H-299 were not linked to the appropriate care departments within the monster bureaucracy. He could clearly see a report filed by Caretaker Fysh on H-299’s initial outing and the need for specialized clothing to be procured on her next, and yet, _nothing had been done because the file had been isolated from the rest of the server._ It burned all the more to acknowledge that this might have slipped his notice had it not been for Blue’s initiative in bringing it to his attention. He had regrettably been rather focussed on the FoH themselves rather than the bitties.

While Wine was never one to attribute malice in place of incompetence, he was hard-pressed to not believe this to be an intentional act. Unless he had severely underestimated the incompetence he could expect from human officials, this was likely an intentional act by someone on the human’s side of the interaction. The real question was if this was a petty act designed to hinder the efforts of monsters or if it was something more directly sinister. Both were equally likely, and given the recent events regarding bitties, Wine would be treating this as more malicious than not and handling it as such. It would be simple to send off a message to Dr. Saw and have the machine obsessed fish monster pull all permissions and secure firewalls for the database—which frankly he would be doing at a later date regardless—but more was required. It was clear to him that a reminder was due. If he was still in the Cross UnderGround, he would be handling this differently, but alas, here on the Surface he had been instructed to play nice.

A simple phone call would do.

It took exactly six rings before his call was answered, a clear powerplay to imply his importance in their eyes. As if such pathetic attempts to discourage him would suffice. It was laughable really, but Wine was in no mood to laugh. His gloved claws lightly clicked on the wood of his desk, the only indication of his irritation. He had no worries that the human on the other side of the line would hear however, given how feeble human senses tended to be.

“Human-Monster Relations, Liaison Abdul Jamine speaking.”

Wine kept his voice even, professional. “Good Evening, Liaison.”

“Oh, _Mister_ Serif! What an unexpected pleasure.” Avoiding using his proper title, attempting to lower his position in relation to himself. Wine let a smirk curl his bones. How dull, but if this was the game he wanted to play, Wine would indulge him. “What can I do for you?”

“It Appears That Permissions For One Of The Bitties Was _Improperly_ Transferred. As Such, The _Failure_ To Relinquish Control As Agreed Has Necessitated My Call.” Wine could practically hear the man on the other end bristle. “We Of The _Royal Guard_ Do Require You To Fix This Issue Regarding Bitty H-299.”

“Is that so? Well, I simply must apologize for how long the issue has persisted! I imagine only catching this error after _several weeks_ must be quite upsetting.” A decent attempt to shame him, he would admit. However, this human was playing against an opponent with more experience than he had been alive. He had been intimate with court politics since his early 200s, and he was far older than that now.

“Yes, The Expectation That The Work Of Your Department To Be Errorless Was Erroneous. We Won’t Be Making That Assumption Again.” Wine relished the grinding of teeth he could hear. “Now, If You Would Be So Kind. Oh, And Do Stop Grinding Your Teeth. Horrible Habit.”

Silence. That had unnerved the fool. Humans rarely remembered that monsters possessed heightened senses, and with how little drive Liaison Jamine had to learn of monsters, it was unlikely he knew at all. The fool was most certainly searching his office to see if he was being observed, as if Wine would leave an obvious indicator of such actions. “O-of course.” A long silence as the man typed away. “Ah, i-it seems that Caretaker John Johnson was supposed to pass the permissions along during the transfer.”

Wine held back the pleased rumble he could feel in his ribs from the pathetic fool's stutter. It was oh so satisfying to put this amateur in his place. “Please Do Explain Why Mr. Johnson Failed To Do So.”

“Uh… he’s d-dead. He was one of the casualties of the attack.” Hm, unfortunate, but not unexpected. Still, no excuse for the lapse, even if the nonsense was true. Wine was rather reticent, but he would readily assert that he called, as Red would say, **_BullShit_**. Records transfers being performed by Caretaker? Believable, expected even. Database permissions being passed along by that same Caretaker? Doubtful.

However, Wine refrained from calling out the clear falsehood. It wouldn't aid him to do so. “And Why Then Were No Checks Performed By Your Department To Ensure All Information Was Properly Distributed, If You Were Aware Of His Passing?”

“I-I don’t know, Serif.” Oh, he had dropped the mister entirely. Wine swirled the Sauvignon in his glass, feeling a bit disappointed. He had always enjoyed a challenge, and this simply wasn’t one. This was akin to playing chess with a baby, except he might feel badly about defeating a baby.

“No, I Don’t Suppose You Do.” Wine let the words lick from his teeth cruelly. By this point he had the fool cowed back into his place, but it never hurt to reinforce the hierarchy for the dense. “Fix Your Mistake, Or I Will. Oh, And _Mister_ Jamine?”

“Y-Yes?”

“If I Learn Of Any Further… Errors, Regarding The Wellbeing Of Our _Citizens_ … Well, Let’s Not Have That Happen, Shall We?” Both of them knew it was no idle threat. Even the dulled instincts of the imbecile on the line could tell that it wasn’t in the captain’s nature.

“Of course, C-Captain Serif.”

“Delightful. I Am So Glad We Reached An Understanding.” Hanging up without providing the pleasantries he normally would, Wine leaned back in his winged chair. Sipping his namesake, he rolled the dry liquid around his tongue. Yes, it was certainly not in his nature to forgive incompetence, let alone malice. Only a fool would assume that he would not take his measure for this slight, this “ _error”_. Indeed, he would not forgive, and he absolutely would not forget.

Shooting off a brief message to Dr. Saw regarding the database, Wine observed the file on his screen. H-299: Miss Elizabeth Greene. His claws clicked upon his desk as Wine took another sip of his Sauvignon, considering. She lacked proper clothing, did she? Well, Wine was not one to fail to provide for what was his, and frankly, he hadn’t indulged himself in a bit. He had some time for the night, and while he lacked her proper measurements, he could at least get a start. He finished his wine, standing from his desk.

Yes, a bit of craftwork was exactly what he would do tonight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not Shown:  
> -Coffee sneaking over at night to plant his flowers behind Bet's apartment complex.  
> -Bitties looking around for who the loud voice is calling to. They never do find out, which is just as weird as the dog head thing.  
> -Bet spending the night conflicted over if Blue was annoying or adorable.  
> -A noise complaint about "Mweh Heh Hehs" from the roof.  
> -Blue putting his sriracha bottles in the recycling before getting to the mansion.  
> -Stretch catching sight of Blue's new background and snagging the photo for him to use too.  
> -Edge squeeing in his room at the thought of a little bitty wearing oversized clothing. Red's concerned.  
> -Abdul spending several hours sweeping his office for cameras and wire bugs.  
> -Wine debating if he should use crushed velvet or spider silk for the inner layer of the dress. He settles on spider silk, for softness.
> 
> Officially introducing UnderSwap!Sans Blue, with a couple of glancing interactions with the other skellies. Absolutely headcanon that Blue drinks sriracha and hides it from Stretch. Also, very rarely will we get overlap on scenes like this. I will mostly be only doing it for scenes where Bet meets a skeleton for the first time, for character purposes. 
> 
> BTW, Wine was only supposed to have a short bit at the end of this chapter, but the jerk took his two paragraphs and ran.

**Author's Note:**

> Arc 1: _Of Bitties and Bones_ : 1-???
> 
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